Elmyr de Hory (born Elemér Albert Hoffmann; Budapest, April
14, 1906 – Ibiza, December 11, 1976) was a Hungarian-born painter and
art forger, who is said to have sold over a thousand forgeries to
reputable art galleries all over the world. His forgeries garnered celebrity
from a
Clifford Irving book, Fake (1969); a documentary essay film by
Orson Welles,
F for
Fake (1974); and a biography by Mark Forgy, "The Forger's Apprentice:
Life with the World's Most Notorious Artist" (2012).
On December 11, 1976, de Hory's live-in bodyguard and companion, Mark
Forgy, informed him that the Spanish government had agreed to extradite de
Hory to France. Shortly thereafter de Hory took an overdose of
sleeping pills, and asked Forgy to accept his decision, not to intervene
or prevent him from taking his life. However, Forgy later went for help to
take de Hory to a local hospital, though, en route, he died in Forgy's arms.
Clifford Irving has expressed doubts about de Hory's death, claiming that he
may have faked his own suicide in order to escape extradition, but Forgy has
dismissed this theory.
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