Karl Feodor Sim(s), Foxton - art forger

Kark Feodor [actually spelled as Fedor on his birth certificate] Sim(s) [not sure if it is spelled Sims or Sim ??] was born in Mangaweka in 1923 - his parents were Leo and Mary (May). He had 4 sisters: Margaret, Rita, Erica (Peachy) and Leomay.

According to Wikipedia, "he copied and sold paintings and drawings of such artists as Frances Hodgkins, Colin McCahon, and Charles F Goldie, in his antique and wine shop in Foxton".

In 1985, he was convicted of forgery and "uttering" and fined $1,000 plus 200 hours' Community Service (including painting the Foxton Town Hall and the public toilets in Foxton),then he changed his name by deed poll from Karl Feodor Sim(s) to Carl Feodor Goldie (C.F. Goldie). He painted this signature on his shop in Foxton.

In 2003, in conjunction with Tim Wilson, he wrote a book about his life story called: "Good as Goldie; the amazing story of New Zealand's most famous art forger".

Reading his book, it was interesting to discover that he did not copy an exising works of art - but instead painted new works that look like they could be painted by some famous artist, signed them and created some provenance for the work and sold them with the provenance.

He explains how he decided to paint a Rita Angus painting ...

Also in his book, he includes a copy of a note written by Hector MacDonald in July 1956 stating that "I have given my C.F. Goldie pencil drawings to Carl Sim ..." - this provided the provenance that enabled him to sell the fake Goldies.

In a post by Lynn Campbell on 13 November 2011 on the Christchurch Art Gallery site reported that, at the New Zealand Conservators of Cultural Materials (NZCCM) conference in Wellington, there was a discussion on discovering forgeries:

"One example given by Gordon [Sharfe] related to Carl Sim and his penchant for painting Goldies. One of his little tricks was to hoard old newspapers that he picked up from antique shops from the Goldie era. He would rip a piece of the old newspaper off, including the date, and stick it on the back of his copy. Unfortunately when his studio was raided by the police he had kept the rest of the newspapers with the missing torn sections. This was a major piece of evidence for the police in proving the Goldie in question was a Sim creation - silly boy." [from: http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/blog/bunker-notes/2011/11/13/its-a-fake/]

When Carl died his sister Margaret Jones found a list of 62 artists whose work he had forged. Unfortunately this list has not yet been published but I have created the following list of 87 artists (considerably more than on the list he left) whose work Sim may have forged using information the view of the list shown on TVNZ News and also details included in Sim's book 'Good as Goldie by CF Goldie and Tim Wilson':

Related Items

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