david stein painting

Here's what I have on the artist,

"he was born Henri Haddad in France, never copied a painting, but painted in the style of the masters he liked. For example, he studied Marc Chagall to copy his colour schemes. He also mastered the styles of Matisse, Braque, Paul Klee, Miro, Jean Cocteau and Rouault. In 1965 Stein made a painting in the style of Picasso and sold it for $14,000. In 1967 one of his forgeries was noticed hanging in a New York gallery and he was arrested. Art dealers refused to cooperate with the prosecution because that would have required them to admit they had been fooled. Nevertheless, Stein was convicted of six counts of art forgery and grand larceny. After Stein had served his prison term in the United States, he was deported to France where he served another term. Prison authorities allowed him to make further paintings, although now using his own name. After Stein was released, he returned to painting, this time selling his paintings under his own name".

You really need to have this piece formally appraised, recent sales of his work have been in the $1200.00- $5000.00 range at auction.

Lovejoy