Keating, Tom (Thomas Patrick) (1917–1984)

English art restorer and forger. Exposed in 1976, he admitted that nine pictures reputedly by Samuel Palmer were his own drawings, and estimated that there were some 2,500 of his fakes in circulation. His aim had not been profit but to expose the fallibility of art experts. Although put on trial at the Old Bailey in 1979, charges were dropped because of his deteriorating health. In 1982 he demonstrated the techniques of the masters in an award-winning television series.

Keating was born in London, and took up painting after winning a box of paints at the age of 10. Invalided out of the navy in 1947, he studied at Goldsmiths' College, London, where he attributed his exam failure to an elitist art world. He took up work restoring paintings, but scandal broke in 1976 when an article in The Times questioned the authenticity of a work by Samuel Palmer sold at auction. In 1983 Keating sold paintings under his own name.