Introducing | Forged: The true story behind the Norval Morrisseau art fraud

Death of an Artist

Pushkin Industries

Arts, True Crime, Society & Culture

4.6 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Here's a preview of a podcast we think you'll enjoy, Forged.

Rock star Kevin Hearn of the Barenaked Ladies is doing rock star things—like buying paintings. And what better painting for an iconic Canadian rocker to buy than one by Norval Morrisseau, one of the most iconic Indigenous artists in Canada? But when Kevin’s Morrisseau painting is featured in an exhibit, it gets taken down because the head curator says it’s “questionable.” Kevin tries to get some answers but every answer leads to more questions. Host Adrian Stimson traces Kevin’s dogged quest to find out the truth about his painting—and learns how this one painting is the key to cracking a whole underworld open.

Forged is a six-part series, from CBC in Canada and ABC Australia, host Adrian Stimson, an artist from the Siksika Nation, travels from Thunder Bay to the Northern Territory of Australia, to reveal what's believed to be the largest art crime fraud in the world. More episodes of Forged are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/ForgedxDOAA

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed human.
0:16.6	Norval Morozo is one of the most famous indigenous artists ever.
0:21.8	His paintings are colorful, beautiful, spectacular.
0:25.8	He was called the Picasso of the North.
0:28.7	But there are thousands of fake Norval Moroosso paintings.
0:33.8	I'm Adrian Stimson, and I'm an indigenous artist from the Siksika Nation, and I know every
0:39.8	painting that I've ever painted. The idea of somebody putting my name on something that isn't
0:45.7	mine, it's heartbreaking. In my brand new six-part podcast series, Forged from CBC in Canada
0:53.5	and ABC in Australia, I explore how the legacy
0:57.1	of one of the most famous indigenous artists got tied up in the largest art fraud in the world.
1:04.4	In this first episode, I trace one rock star's quest to find out the truth about his own Norval-Morosso painting
1:12.2	and learn how this one painting became the key to cracking a whole underworld open.
1:19.0	Have a listen.
1:25.5	We burn this sort of to prepare our minds.
1:30.6	This grass is used for a sacred purpose, and that purpose is to clear away the aberrations
1:37.0	of the mind, to allow space to enter so that spirit of speech being true.
1:52.0	That's the voice of Norval Moro, smudging at ceremony. Just upstairs?
1:57.0	Somehow, Norval led me here.
1:59.0	Inspector Rybaud? Yes, nice to meet you, Adrian Stipson.
2:01.6	Hi.
2:02.6	I'm sitting in a police station in Thunder Bay.
	...

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