Elmyr de Hory (born Elemér Albert Hoffmann; April 14, 1906[citation needed] – December 11, 1976) was a famed Hungarian-born painter and art forger.

[1] However, subsequent investigation has suggested that de Hory more likely had a middle-class childhood; he was born Elemér Albert Hoffmann on April 14, 1906.

This harsh reality and the economic shock waves of the Great Depression dimmed any prospects of his making a living from his art.

[3] On arriving in Paris after the war, de Hory attempted to make an honest living as an artist, but soon discovered that he had an uncanny ability to copy the styles of noted painters.

To his mind, it offered redemption from the starving artist scenario, buttressed by the comfortable rationalization that his buyers were getting something beautiful at "friendly" prices.

They toured Europe together, selling the forgeries until de Hory discovered that, although they were supposed to share the profits equally, Chamberlin had kept most of the money.

In August 1947 he visited the United States on a three-month visa and successfully sold Picasso forgeries to the art dealer Klaus Perls.

De Hory expanded his forgeries to include works in the manner of Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Renoir.

When some of the galleries de Hory had sold his forgeries to were becoming suspicious, he began to use pseudonyms and to sell his work by mail order.

In 1955, de Hory sold several forgeries to Chicago art dealer Joseph W. Faulkner, who later discovered they were fakes.

His stomach was pumped, and after a stay in the hospital de Hory convalesced in New York City, helped by an enterprising young man, Fernand Legros.

He portrays de Hory as an aggressive and persistent con man, who suckers Legros into the belief that he is a needy impoverished aristocrat deserving of Legros's charity, whereas in reality he is a person wanted by Interpol under a multitude of different aliases and convicted of a variety of crimes, forgery and fraud being not the least of them; de Horys is the object of pursuits, convictions and expulsions from France, Switzerland, Italy, Federal Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, the United States, and Canada, for false check writing without funds, check forgery, committing forgery while carrying a false name, theft, receiving and purveying of stolen goods, and embezzlement.

According to de Hory, Legros devised a plan to steal the paintings and sell them, making a name for himself and his art gallery in the process.

De Hory continued to elude the police for some time but, tired of life in exile, decided to move back to Ibiza to accept his fate.

In August 1968, a Spanish court convicted him of the crimes of homosexuality, showing no visible means of support, and consorting with criminals (Legros), sentencing him to two months in prison in Ibiza.

De Hory appeared in several television interviews and was featured with Irving in the Orson Welles documentary F for Fake (1973).

In Welles's film, de Hory questioned what it was that made his forgeries inferior to the actual paintings created by the artists he imitated, particularly since they had fooled so many experts and were always appreciated when it was believed that they were genuine.

During the early 1970s, de Hory again decided to resume painting, hoping to exploit his newfound fame: this time, he would sell his own, original work.

While he had gained some recognition in the art world, he made little profit, and he soon learned that French authorities were attempting to extradite him to stand trial on fraud charges.

Shortly thereafter, de Hory took an overdose of sleeping pills, and asked Forgy to accept his decision and not intervene or prevent him from taking his life.

Clifford Irving has expressed doubts about de Hory's death, claiming that he may have faked his own suicide in order to escape extradition, but Forgy has dismissed this theory.