David Henty talks prison art class, homages and Caravaggio film

David Henty, a self-described master art forger, has discussed his prison sentence, painting methods and current projects in a television interview. He said he served five years for forging passports and used his time inside to join an art class. There he learned how to age paper and began producing watercolours. He gave the works to his brothers, who were antique dealers, and they sold them at Bermondsey Market and passed him the money. He described such paintings as homage, or tribute, rather than forgery.

In the interview, Henty showed and discussed copies or tributes to famous artists. He presented a version of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, noting it is regarded as the most expensive painting in the world at around £450 million, though he said there are doubts about whether the original is genuine. He also showed a Lowry and a Picasso. The Picasso work was linked to a painting stolen from a museum in 2010, valued at £30 million at the time and still missing. He said he could paint a Modigliani in about three or four hours.

Henty said he sometimes paints Banksies and leaves them out for people to find in bins or elsewhere. He named Caravaggio as his favourite artist and said he is working on a film called A Conversation with Caravaggio. He has also written a book, The Forger's Game, with the main character based on him. The plot involves an insurance agent who sees a Lucian Freud painting that had apparently been destroyed on CCTV, only to discover that the destroyed work was a copy.

He said he turns down requests to make copies for people who want to pass them off as originals, including requests involving old canvases. He claimed some forgeries can become more valuable than the originals, citing Han van Meegeren, an old master forger whose work he said is now worth more than the old master he copied. He also criticised art critics, repeating an anecdote about an elephant being given a paintbrush and its scribbles being discussed as serious art.

The interview included lighter moments. Henty was asked to pull a pint as a forger test and scored two out of ten. Asked whom he would invite to a soiree, he chose Caravaggio, Rod Stewart and Michelangelo, and said he would talk about art with Caravaggio.