Two art fraud rings in a remote Canadian city produced thousands of paintings sold in galleries as works by Norval Morrisseau, Canada’s most celebrated Indigenous artist.

Jan. 26, 2025

Tim Tait put two and two together when he went to sell some of his paintings to a law firm in downtown Thunder Bay two decades ago. He spotted one of his other works already there — but with somebody else’s signature on it.

And not just anybody’s. It read “Copper Thunderbird,” a.k.a. the “Picasso of the North.” Real name Norval Morrisseau, Canada’s most famous Indigenous artist whose original style shattered the country’s idea of art and elbowed its way into its most important museum.

“I called the cops,” said Mr. Tait, a local artist in Thunder Bay, Ontario, who is also Indigenous. “All they did was laugh at me and ridicule me on the phone.”

“And I said, ‘When it comes out, I’ll be singing like a bird.’”

By the time it all came out — decades later — two criminal rings in Thunder Bay had knocked off thousands of bogus Norval Morrisseaus that collectively fetched millions of dollars across Canada. The fakes, which included rebranded paintings by Mr. Tait and other Indigenous artists, made it onto the walls of the country’s top galleries and universities. They were purchased by retired schoolteachers, billionaire art collectors and even a rock star.

The leaders of the Thunder Bay rings have pleaded guilty to fraud in the past year and are now imprisoned. Thunder Bay — an isolated city on Lake Superior’s north shore that drug dealers from Toronto have turned into Canada’s homicide capital — has also emerged as the epicenter of the biggest art fraud in the country’s history.