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The first of eight suspects accused in a massive Indigenous art fraud case is expected to be sentenced in a northern Ontario court Thursday morning.
Gary Bruce Lamont, 61, was charged with seven others in March by Ontario Provincial Police and Thunder Bay police following a collaborative investigation dubbed ‘Project Totton’ involving fake art sold as work by late renowned artist Norval Morrisseau.
Through the investigation, more than 1,000 counterfeit paintings, prints and artwork were seized, OPP said.
The total number of fake art produced is unknown.
Lamont, of Thunder Bay, was originally charged with forgery, uttering a forged document, defrauding the public over $5,000, fraud over $5,000 and commission of an offence for a criminal organization in connection with the fake Morrisseau art.
After pleading guilty Dec. 4 to making false documents and defrauding the public more than $5,000, Lamont is back in court Thursday for sentencing.
So far, 190 Lamont forgeries have been identified and 117 pieces seized by investigators.
The sentencing hearing is being heard by Justice Bonnie Warkentin and started at 11 a.m.
Lamont arrived in the courtroom a few minutes late and is standing in the accused’s box.
The agreed statement of facts will be read into the court record along with victim impact statements.
The forged artwork was marketed for sale between Jan. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2015, the agreed statement of facts said.
“Today is a historic day in the art fraud world,” Warkentin said to the courtroom at the start of the hearing.
In a joint sentencing submission, the Crown and defence are asking for a five-year prison sentence with a credit for the one year Lamont has already spent in jail.
Crown not seeking restitution orders.
One of the many victims of the ‘Lamont Fraud Ring’ said she lost more than $100,000 by buying the counterfeit artwork, in her victim impact statement read into the record.
CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca is watching the court proceeding online and will update the article as new information becomes available.
The seven other people charged in the case are Morrisseau’s 53-year-old nephew Benjamin, Lamont’s 59-year-old partner, a 51-year-old man, a 63-year-old woman, a 47-year-old Niagara-on-the-Lake man, a 75-year-old Locust Hill man and an 81-year-old Essa Township man.
They have yet to have their day in court.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Norval Morrisseau was born in 1932 in Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation, in northwestern Ontario.
He was a residential school survivor who suffered physical and sexual abuse and left school at age 10.
Morrisseau was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1990 and passed away in 2007 at age 75.
In the 1960s, he started signing his artwork in Cree syllabics.
Morrisseau met a Toronto art dealer in 1962, who agreed to show his work.
It was the first time an Indigenous artist had an exhibit in a contemporary gallery.
All of the artwork sold out on the first day of the exhibition, skyrocketing Morrisseau into celebrity status.
Over his life, he received many awards, including the Order of Canada in 1978.
Other notable achievements include a 1989 Paris exhibition and a 2006 exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada, which led to a resurgence in his popularity.
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