Michel Van Rijn was born in Paris in 1950 and was a name that resonated through the corridors of the art world for all the wrong reasons.  His father, a Dutch dentist, owned a large collection of primitive art.  

Early in Michel's career, he veered away from the legitimate aspects of the business and into the shadowy world of illicit trade and forgery, and claimed to have made his first million in his 20s craftily smuggling icons out of Soviet Russia.  Over time, his life would become marked by a series of high-profile controversies, legal battles, and enigmatic actions that labelled him as both notorious and useful.

His career in art smuggling spanned several decades, during which he established himself as a formidable player in the art world.  His operations were diverse and far-reaching, spanning the global art market and involving the sale of everything from ancient artefacts, to religious, and contemporary works of art.  

As a dealer, Michel was willing to bend the rules, and was adept at exploiting the opaque nature of the art market in which he worked. As such, he was not opposed to using forged provenance documents and false histories to sell the plundered or counterfeit objects which passed through his hands. 

Van Rijn's relationship with law enforcement was complex, and often times contentious.  Facing multiple legal entanglements in several countries on charges ranging from smuggling to fraud, he nimbly managed to avoid prison sentences.  Likewise, his knowledge of the art market and its underground elements made him a valuable, if controversial, asset to investigators where he sometimes played the dual role of both criminal and an informant.  According to him, this position sometimes resulted in threats to his life and to his family members. 

Despite this, his legal cooperation led to the recovery of smuggled and stolen artworks, as well as the exposure of forgery rings, though many in the field consider his motives as self serving.  His informant status protected his interests and also served to out his misbehaving art market rivals. 

Despite, or perhaps born from his brushes with the law, Michel maintained a flamboyant public persona, cultivating a reputation that was equal parts charismatic rogue and master manipulator, a position he seemed to relish, alongside his new-found notoriety. On film, in several documentaries made about his exploits, he was blunt and brash with his opinions on how the art market really works. 

Later in life Van Rijn turned to writing, authoring several books and articles that provided rare glimpses into the murky world of art crime and which brought the general public's attention to the significant flaws in the system that governs the art trade.  Part autobiography and part exposé, Michel's writing detailed not only his own exploits but touched upon the broader issues of authenticity, smuggling, and the market's ethics or lack there-of.  This underscored the market's need for greater accountability.  While some praised his blunt and acerbic insights, others criticised him for being self-serving and for minimising his own skin in the game.

As a man who spent his entire career living in the grey areas of legality and morality, Van Rijn navigated his fame, as the spokesperson for the art world's underbelly, with a mix of charm, cunning, and audacity. Last week, on 25 July 2024, he died in Italy, still a figure shrouded in mystery and contradiction.   

To some, Michael Van Rijn was a necessary evil who helped shed light on the dark corners no one wants to explore within the high stakes game of buying and selling hot art.  To others, he was a Machiavellian manipulator who exploited his knowledge and his connections for selfish gains.  

Knowing a little bit about where and how Van Rijn lived in his latter years, I personally think his personal gain was short-lived and his death an estranged one. And while his methods and motivations are still being debated, there is no denying the impact Michel had on what we know about the crooked paths some objects travel, or the art market's dishonesty and cunning audacity, or the length some dealers go to exploit the market's loopholes and lax laws, and the often opaque nature of art transactions in the name of profit from ill-gotten gains.

By: Lynda Albertson