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May 3, 2019 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

The Hitler Forgery Industry

to Hitler (main page) | to Certificates of Authenticity


Frank P. Garo


Introduction | Dubious certificates - criminal offenses?
Biography | Frank P. Garo exposed as bogus expert, 2006
Caught in the act, 2017 | Garo 'Hitlers' seized by police
Traced Garo-CoA's | Frank Garo, the artist | Press about Garo

Garo's reaction

By Jaap van den Born and Bart FM Droog

The strange business of selling fakes, forgeries and other concoctions attributed to Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and other Nazis.

Introduction: Frank P. Garo

One of the 'Certificates of Authenticity' issuers to obvious forged Hitler signatures on watercolors, oil paintings, sketches and documents is the American Frank P. Garo (year of birth unknown).

We've detected fraudulent certificates of authenticity issued by him to easy recognizable forged 'Hitler' signatures on artworks and photos auctioned in Canada, Germany, Liechtenstein and the United States. 

Garo is not only issuing such certificates to clearly fake Hitler signatures, but also to numerous other signatures attributed to 'famous' people.

His method is very simple. After receiving 20 dollars and a digital photo of the object with the signature, Garo states that the signature on the object is - in his belief - authentic. For another 20 or 25 dollars Garo prints a 'certificate of authenticity' with a standard text and sends it to his client. 

All his certificates of authenticity look like this:


A standard text, with an image of the signed object. In this case a very clumsy fake Hitler watercolor. 


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Highly dubious certificates - criminal offense?

 

The letters or certificates of authenticity issued by Garo are highly dubious. Not because Mr. Garo states his opinion or belief about the nature of the object and/or signature - which he is free to do.

He commits fraud though by stating that the item has been carefully examined and compared to real, known exemplars.

Which clearly isn't the case. He merely looks at a photo of an object with a signature on it, and issues a CoA, without any proper research. That he acts in this way, we've revealed already in 2017.

See: Report for Bavarian State police on Frank P. Garo.

In an 2007 interview Garo even admitted that he's misinforming his clients:


Sports Collectors Digest: "How can you use the word 'forensic' without forensic training?"
Frank P. Garo: "If you look up 'forensic' in the dictionary, it means basically, 'to observe, to look at, to watch.' I feel totally justified to put forensic in there. I don't care who knows; it impresses people."

Rocky Landsverk. Hobby veteran Garo now full-time authenticator. Sports Collectors Digest, [USA], 21-12-2007.
https://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com/hobby_veteran_garo_now_full-time_authenticator/



On this aspect Mr. Garo might be charged for fraud. He is, after all, deceiving his clients.

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Frank P. Garo - an unauthorized biography


Frank P. Garo, born ca. 1941, became interested in autographs and handwriting analysis while growing up in the 1950's.1 He allegedly has a bachelor's degree in marketing at Fordham University in New York City.2 Garo claims he founded in 1972 G.S. Gallery Inc., a company which published baseball cards.3 If he indeed was the founder, is highly questionable.


G.S. Gallery card, 1982 - source: Ebay, 2019.

Baseball cards are very popular amongst collectors. If these cards have signatures of the depicted baseball players on them, collectors pay small fortunes for them. This fact inspires all kinds of forgers and swindlers.4

Garo started authenticating autographs shortly after he founded G.S. Gallery, which, again according to him, became one of the largest memorabilia businesses in America.5 He sold this company in 1984.6

Garo also claims to have been in the 1970's and 1980's consultant to Topps and Fleer, two of the leading US baseball cards publishers. He claims too that the autograph expert and author Charles Hamilton was a personal friend of him, from whom he learned a lot.7
This seems to contradict with what he said in an 2007 interview8: "I am completely self-taught, and I am very proud of that fact. I've read just about every book there is to read about autographs and handwriting, and I even watch things on television pertaining to forensic autograph authentication. Education is a good thing, but I have not been the beneficiary of formal training."

In this same interview Garo said: "I have a lot of old books, a lot of them from Charles Hamilton, who was an autograph guru."

We asked Mr. Garo for proof of his relationship with Charles Hamilton, which he wouldn't or couldn't provide.9
'William Tell Research' and 'Arrow Grade'


Logo William Tell Research website; still to visit via
https://web.archive.org/web/20031008004021/http://www.williamtell.us/

In 1998 Garo founded William Tell Research (WTR), a firm which issued between 1998 and 2007/2008 more than 20,000 certificates of authenticity.10 Via Arrow Grade, a division of WTR, Garo graded sports and other memorabilia cards. The Arrow Grade site was online from 2006 until 2012. In 2012 Garo stated on this website he had "personally graded well over 100,000 cards."

 In the logo on the WTR website Garo wrote: "Est. 1972", another lie to deceive his customers.


Logo Arrow Grade website, still to visit via:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120107125652/http://www.arrowgrade.com/

Frank P. Garo FHE Forensic Handwriting Examiner


First logo Frank P. Garo, captured on February 12, 2007 by www.archive.org.

In 2007 Garo changed the name of his company into Frank P. Garo Forensic Handwriting Examiner. He issued from 2007 until begin 2019 circa 10,000 certificates of authenticity.11

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notes

1 Frank P. Garo. Company Profile. William Tell Research website ; still to visit via
https://web.archive.org/web/20031008004021/http://www.williamtell.us/
2 Frank P. Garo, in interview with  Rocky Landsverk. Hobby veteran Garo now full-time authenticator. Sports Collectors Digest, [USA], 21-12-2007.
https://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com/hobby_veteran_garo_now_full-time_authenticator/
3 Frank P. Garo. Company Profile, www.fpgaro.com. [Seen 01-04-2019].
http://www.fpgaro.com/company-profile
4 Jake Rossen and Tim Elfrink. Autograph fakery. Two firms monopolizie a lucrative business. Miami New Times, 27-03-2017.
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/autograph-fakery-two-firms-monopolize-a-lucrative-business-6395264
See also: 'Jason Cards'. The forgotten prehistory of Topps, Fleer and Donruss. Baseball cards, prehistory. Jason Cards Wordpress.com, [USA] 05-01-2019.
https://jasoncards.wordpress.com/2019/01/05/the-forgotten-prehistory-of-topps-fleer-and-donruss/

5 Frank P. Garo. Company Profile, www.fpgaro.com. [Seen 01-04-2019].
6 Frank P. Garo. Company Profile, www.fpgaro.com. [Seen 01-04-2019].
7 Frank P. Garo. Company Profile, www.fpgaro.com. [Seen 01-04-2019].
8 Frank P. Garo, in interview with  Rocky Landsverk. Sports Collectors Digest, [USA], 21-12-2007.
9 Questions from Bart FM Droog to Frank P. Garo. E-mail, 24-01-2019.
10 Jaap van den Born and Bart FM Droog. Traced CoA's from Frank P. Garo. Droog Magazine, Eenrum, 01-04-2019.
http://www.droog-mag.nl/hitler/coa/garo/garo-certificates-of-authenticity.html
11 Van den Born and Droog. Traced CoA's from Frank P. Garo. Droog Magazine.

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Exposed as bogus expert


In January 2006 the HBO television program 'Real Sports' focused on the swindle with certificates of authenticity in the sports memorabilia trade.



"Real Sports sent out 30 bogus items to six authenticators. These items also camefrom the FBI warehouse where the forgeries were kept. According to Real Sports (...) "four of the six authenticators failed miserably." (this is a quote from the reporter on the show, Armen Katayan). As to the four who "failed miserably," the COA's of Frank Garo, Stat Inc, Christopher Morales (a forensic examiner) and AAU (a forensic examination company) were shown on the screen as the reporter Armen Katayan continued his report."

This particular show was broadcasted on several days, from January 17 to 21 January, 2006.

Richard Simons. The autograph "business'' news and notes. Richard Simon Sports Inc., New York, updated version 05-04-2018 [seen 01-04-2019] .
http://richardsimonsports.com/hofauto2.htm


"Donald Frangipani was given 7 items to examine. You all saw how he did. He stated every item was genuine. HBO and the FBI have stated that every item he examined was not genuine. All the other authenticators had 5 items submitted to each of them. The first four authenticators were Christopher Morales, AAU, Stats (Ted Taylor), Frank Garo (William Tell Research). According to the show these four authenticators incorrectly said that 15 items were genuine out of 20 bogus items submitted to them."


Richard Simon. HBO's Real Sports - A Must See Episode . 19-01-2006.Net54baseball.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=80116&page=3

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Caught in the act, 2017

Whilst investigating the Hitler forgery industry, we noticed the existence of many bogus certificates of authenticity issued by Frank P. Garo to obvious forgeries attributed to Adolf Hitler. We decided to test him out. We sent him bait, in the form of a homebaked Hitler forgery with a fantasy Hitler signature. Mr. Garo authenticated without any hesitation.


This, despite the fact that on the back of the forgery clearly the fake stamp 'HBH' was placed, a mark from a forger whom Charles Hamilton (Garo claimed to have studied all relevant Hamilton books) strongly warned against in his book The Hitler Diaries: fakes that fooled the World. In his e-mail to Frank Garo Jaap van den Born specifically pointed at that stamp, giving him every chance and opportunity to notice it was a forgery.


See: How we revealed Frank P. Garo's 'authentication' method.

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'Hitlers' with Garo CoA's seized by German police

When we learned about two upcoming Hitler auctions in Germany, we noticed that three 'Hitlers' at a Berlin  auction (Kloss, January 24, 2019) and at least nine at a Nuremberg auction (Weidler, February 9, 2019) were accompanied by CoA's issued by Frank P. Garo.

As Garo's CoA's are strong 'forgery indicators', and the works and the signatures on it resembled in nothing on authentic Hitler paintings or signatures, we notified the police.

All the 'Hitlers' with Garo CoA's were seized by the police, as well as 54 other 'Hitlers'.


Sources

Sven-Felix Kellerhoff. 98 percent of 'Hitler's' paintings are counterfeits.  The Post Online, Amsterdam, 31-01-2019.
https://tpo.nl/2019/01/31/98-percent-of-hitlers-paintings-are-counterfeits/  

David Crossland. Art market 'turns blind eye' to Hitler fakes. The Sunday Times, London, 03-02-2019.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/art-market-turns-blind-eye-to-hitler-fakes-0fsghjlbv
Maya Margit. German authorities seize 63 alleged Hitler paintings amid booming forgery market. The Media Line, Washington (D.C., USA), 07-02-2019.
https://themedialine.org/featured/german-authorities-seize-63-alleged-hitler-paintings-amid-booming-forgery-market/
Oliver Moody. Hitler art sale in Nuremberg flops after seizure of suspected fakes. The Times, London, 11-02-2019.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hitler-art-sale-in-nuremberg-flops-after-seizure-of-suspected-fakes-lh2znk7kb
Christopher F. Schuetze. Are these paintings really by Hitler? German authorities are investigating. The New York Times, New York, 06-03-2019.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/arts/design/hitler-paintings-fake.html

  

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Traced Garo-CoA's


Of the 30,000 certificates of authenticity allegedly issued by Garo, we traced only a small number.

We're registrating those on this special page (click).

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Frank Garo, the artist

Frank P Garo is not only an 'authenticator' of forged signatures, he is also an... artist! Garo, on www.fgaroart.com , about himself:



"Frank Garo is an internationally known Forensic Handwriting Examiner. Over the years he has dabbled in sculpture and jewelry making. In 2007 he decided to try drawing. He never took a class in drawing or painting and is completely self-taught.

Using mostly Sharpie pens, he completed over 1,000 drawings in a period of one and a half years. His modern abstract style shows touches of impressionism, expressionism, cubism, pop art, cartoons and other art genres. The drawings emphasize vibrant colors that are stunning and often unconventional. His colorful, vibrant works speak for themselves and really don’t need any labels."

Well, well. One wonders how the works of this genius look like. Like this:


'A Yellow Duck With Monocle'

'Flying'

He offers prints of 158 of his artworks for sale. A signed copy costs only $20.- . For just $45.- extra Garo issues a certificate of authenticity to it. Now, isn't that a bargain?

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Press about Frank P. Garo


Rocky Landsverk. Hobby veteran Garo now full-time authenticator. Sports Collectors Digest, Palm Coast, Florida (USA), 21-12-2007.

https://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com/hobby_veteran_garo_now_full-time_authenticator/


Mareike Hasenbeck. Wer kauft denn einen Hitler? Focus Magazin, München, Nr. 48/2016, 26-11-2016.
(...) "Für den Kenner haben solche Bilder mit Kunst nicht viel zu tun. Auch, ob es sich um Originale handelt, scheint egal. Die Echtheitszertifikate stammen unter anderem von einem gewissen Professor August Priesack. Der frühere Nazi-Funktionär ist bisher eher damit aufgefallen, dass er mit seinen Gutachten kräftig danebenlag und sich schon bei dem Prozess um die falschen Hitler-Tagebücher bis auf die Knochen blamierte.

Oder von dem US-Amerikaner Frank P. Garo, der mit seinem Online-Dienst Handschriftenanalysen im Schnellservice für 20 Dollar anbietet. Aber das schreckt niemanden ab: Hauptsache, irgendwie ein Hitler." (...)
https://www.focus.de/magazin/archiv/politik-und-gesellschaft-wer-kauft-denn-einen-hitler_id_6250388.html

Ryan Dailey. Tallahassee auction will sell what could be some of Hitler's early sketches. Tallahassee Democrat, 09-02-2018.
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/02/09/tallahassee-auction-sell-what-could-some-hitlers-early-sketches/308012002/

Jaap van den Born and Bart FM Droog. The Tallahassee Auction. Droog Magazine, Eenrum, 09-03-2018.
https://www.bartfmdroog.com/droog/niod/th.html

Sven-Felix Kellerhoff. Mythen des Kunstmarkts. Hitlers künstlerisches "Werk" soll bis zu 3000 Bilder umfasst haben. Welt, Berlin, 30-01-2019.
https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article187933434/Kunstmarkt-Mythen-Hitler-soll-bis-zu-3000-Bilder-gemalt-haben.html

Sven-Felix Kellerhoff. 98 percent of 'Hitler's' paintings are counterfeits.  The Post Online, Amsterdam, 31-01-2019.
https://tpo.nl/2019/01/31/98-percent-of-hitlers-paintings-are-counterfeits/  

David Crossland. Art market 'turns blind eye' to Hitler fakes. The Sunday Times, London, 03-02-2019.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/art-market-turns-blind-eye-to-hitler-fakes-0fsghjlbv

Maya Margit. German authorities seize 63 alleged Hitler paintings amid booming forgery market. The Media Line, Washington (D.C., USA), 07-02-2019.
https://themedialine.org/featured/german-authorities-seize-63-alleged-hitler-paintings-amid-booming-forgery-market/

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Garo's reaction


On April 30, 2019, Mr. Garo sent us two kind e-mails. The first one:

"Your April 3, article about me was recently brought to my attention. It is so full of half truths, distortions and out right lies I'm not going to waste my time repudiating your pathetic garbage. You make America's National Enquirer look respectable. I'm surprised you did not accuse me of kicking puppy dogs for a hobby

But relax, I'm sure wherever he is rotting Josef Goebbels would be proud of you."

In the second one he gave some biographical informaton which might be correct:

"One thing I learned from the Jesuits at Fordham (from which I did indeed graduate and you could have easily confirmed) is never urinate against the wind or you'll get peed on.  Put another way, trying to explain something to a closed mind like yours is the same thing.

G.S. Gallery the company I "allegedly" founded stands for Garo Studio & Gallery. I'm sure that's just a "coincidence"."

After we thanked Mr. Garo for his friendly words, he sent us a final mail on May 1, 2019. He replied:

"The late American president Harry S. Truman when asked his opinion on a particular columnist replied: "He wouldn't tell the truth about what he ate for breakfast"."

Which surprised as, as we didn't know Garo possessed so much self-knowledge.

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© Compilation Jaap van den Born & Bart FM Droog, 2019.