ELNE, France — A French art museum displaying a town’s local artist discovered that nearly half of its collection are fakes.
"It's a catastrophe," Yves Barniol, mayor of Elne, told France Blue. "I put myself in the place of all the people who came to visit the museum, who saw fake works of art, who paid an entrance fee. It's intolerable and I hope we find those responsible."
An art historian raised questions about the authenticity of paintings attributed to Etienne Terrus after noticing that buildings featured in some of the work were constructed after the artists' death in 1922, according to France 3.
Experts said 82 of the 140 works displayed were fakes.
The state-owned museum had spent more than $190,000 in the past few decades to add to its collection.