William (Billy The Brush) Mumford, October the 16th 1948 to January 4th 2026.The fine art fraudster who flooded the market with forged paintings worth millions of pounds.

 

Billy was born at Grays in Essex. At an early age his artistic talent was recognised by his school and although he was a difficult pupil the school put him forward and he was enrolled into St Martins College of Art in Charing Cross Road.

 

Unfortunately, however, his disruptive behaviour eventually led to his expulsion. Billy left St Martins with sufficient equipment and purloined paint to commence his career as an art forger. He started painting copies of Renoir, Lowry and Van Gogh and had immediate success selling the first batch he painted at a local market.

 

Over the following years Billy developed the skills required for sales of his forgeries to top UK and international auction houses. He specialized in a range of artists including SayedHaider Raza, Francis Newton Souza, Maqbool Fida Husain, Vincent Van Gogh, L.SLowry, Picasso, Welsh landscape painter Kyffin Williams, and English surrealist andmodernist artist John Tunnard.

 

It is estimated that he put over £6 million pounds worth of forgeries through the auction houses before he was eventually caught by a special art unit of the metropolitan police in an investigation called ‘Operation Sketch’.

 

Billy was sentenced to two years in prison on May 3, 2012 at Southwark Crown Court by Judge Michael Gledhill after confessing to having sold over 1000 fake paintings of well known artists through some of the world’s major auction houses.

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BBC report of trial

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​Of the paintings that were tracked down by Operation Sketch only a few were ever recovered due to the owners unwillingness to agree they were forgeries. As a result a potential seven year sentence was reduced to two years.

 

Most of his works, it is believed in excess of one thousand, have never been identified and still adorn the walls of galleries and private collections around the world.

 

During his time in prison Billy continued to paint and ran a class for some of the more artistically inclined inmates. On his release the governess of the prison asked Billy to paint a Jackson Pollock which was hung on the wall of her office.

 

Interestingly the arresting officer of Operation Sketch, Michelle Roycroft, became a close personal friend when she left the force some time after Billy’s release.

 

After his release from prison Billy freestyled his way through all genres of art. His paintings, which are now viewed as very collectable in their own right, were sold as legitimate, William Mumford, copies with certificates of authenticity.

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Television

 

Billy made a number of television appearances including ‘Good morning Britain’ with Jeffery Archer to promote Archer’s new book, for which he painted a Rembrant and a copy of the US Declaration of independence, ‘Portrait Artist of the year 2021’, and of course, just before his arrest, ‘Crimewatch’.

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Sky Arts: Also featured him as an expert on Sky Arts (Fake: The Great Masterpiece Challenge), where he famously evaluated a forged L.S. Lowry painting at the Lowry Museum in Manchester A chat with William Mumford, also known as 'Billy The Brush'. Now TV / Reality Competitions: Made an appearance on Now TV's Portrait Artist of the Year and sat as a celebrity guest subject on the Worthing Portrait Artist of the Year 2021 competition

 

Documentaries: Filmed three documentaries for Vice TV detailing his life and methods.