It is well-known that talent isn’t hereditary. And that’s what’s makes Jean-Charles Millet miserable. He is the grandson of Jean-François Millet, the artist who made such well-known paintings as The Angelus and Gleaners, as well as many drawings and engravings.

He may not be talented, but the grandson is cunning. He comes up with the idea of selling fake works by his grandfather (which he has done by a brilliant forger), then applying the artist’s own seal to them. Just like that, he gets rich selling paintings that have shown up providentially in the attic, unfinished works that were set aside, studies that were never completed and more to unsuspecting (or unwilling to suspect) art dealers. But jealousy and greed will bring the whole system crashing down...

Éric Halphen tells the true, but little-known story (that ends so very badly) with the precision of a judge reconstituting the facts and the deadpan humor of a Jean Echenoz taking on the lives of Maurice Ravel, Nikolas Tesla and Emil Zatopek.

The amazing tale of a forgery attributed to Jean-François Millet, the most prominent member of the Barbizon school, in the 1920s.