Över hälften av museets tavlor var förfalskade

Étienne Terrus, (Elne, Pyrénées-Orientales, September 1857 - Elne, June 1922) was a French painter from Roussillon. When he was 17 years old, he went to Paris to study but soon after, he went back to Elne, where he produced most of his works. He used to walk with his easel and he is considered one of the fauvisme precursor. During his life, he was very much appreciated by artists like George-Daniel de Monfreid, André Derain and Henri Matisse, who was his penfriend from 1905 to 1917. He met the artist Aristide Maillol and although he was forgotten, his works were recuperated for the exhibition « Le Roussillon à l'origine de l'Art Moderne » in Perpignan in 1998 and a museum about him was inaugurated in his birth town in 1994. The Terrus museum in Elne in the south of France is dedicated to paintings by Terrus. In 2018, it was discovered that half its collection, 82 works, were counterfeit. It was thought that works by other regional artists in other locations might also be counterfeit.