Shownotes Transcript
Not long ago, I spent three nights on a remote island with this guy: Helge Achenbach. Helge was once one of the most powerful art dealers in the world.
He's also the most famous criminal you've never heard of. Helga was so successful at finding and selling Picassos and Warhols and Richters that he owned seven homes and 30 classic cars. You know, he didn't want to drive one Bentley. He wanted to drive five Bentleys.
And for a while, the good times rolled. When I did a party there, let's say a New Year party, we had 400 guests from all over Germany. But then Helga ripped off the wrong person. The man Helga crossed was named Berthold Albrecht, an heir to the Aldi supermarket fortune. The two became unlikely friends until they went into business together. That's when things turned shady. Forgery and fraud entered the picture, and Helga landed in prison.
Helge Achenbach considers himself a scapegoat for an art world built on corruption, lies and deceit.
But is he? Art's value is a fiction, and it's just a set of agreements that are being made between the various players of the game. Or is he simply a common crook who got what he deserved? He was someone who took advantage of a good opportunity for him to make money. Or maybe, as with art itself, it's all in the eye of the beholder.
I'm Bijan Stephen, and on this season of Chameleon, I'm taking you deep inside the secretive high-end art market.
A place where the longer you look at an image, the more it changes. And you looked at me like if you would see the devil. The devil on the ground. From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, this is Chameleon, Gallery of Lies. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to start binging all episodes on September 1st. Or listen weekly, starting on September 5th, wherever you get your podcasts. But honestly, this is out of record. Yeah.
It's still recording. It's still on.