0:00

You can't believe me. $450,000. Give

0:02

me five. Fiddle. What

0:05

is this? Chameleon. Season 6,

0:09

Gallery of Lies. A production of Campside

0:11

Media. Oh. The devil on the ground.

0:15

The

0:17

Bench.

0:22

In the fall of 2022, a documentary

0:25

film about Helga Achenbach premiered at the

0:27

Cologne Film Festival. It's called

0:29

Der Illusionist, which, as

0:31

you may have guessed, translates to The

0:33

Illusionist. It chronicles Helga's

0:35

long life and career in the arts, his

0:38

big breaks, and even some of his less

0:40

triumphant moments. It was made by

0:42

Birgit Schulz, a film and TV director

0:44

with a long list of credits to her name.

0:48

This past spring, the film was screened in a theater in

0:50

Dusseldorf's Old Town neighborhood, and

0:53

Helga was there as an honored guest. He

0:55

attended with his friend, or girlfriend, or who

0:58

knows, Aisha. Anna

1:00

Berlitt was there, too. The auditorium

1:02

has about 190 seats, and

1:04

Helga said there was so much interest they added a second

1:07

showing that night. After

1:09

the film's credits rolled, he told us, about 75 people

1:12

gathered in a Spanish restaurant next door to

1:15

toast the movie, the successful screening, and,

1:18

of course, himself. And

1:21

he was feeling good, despite a handful

1:23

of detractors in the audience. A few critics, gallerists,

1:25

and art world denizens who aren't terribly fond

1:28

of him. Seeing

1:31

his life flicker before his eyes, up there

1:33

on the big screen,

1:34

Helga was moved. And of course

1:36

it was touchy sometimes, seeing

1:39

old history, parts of my life,

1:42

the

1:43

success time, the prison,

1:48

my first visit of a friend when

1:51

I was in the prison, when

1:54

I came out, and all these things. So

1:56

it was really, for me

1:58

also, a kind of emotion.

2:00

The release of the film and the subsequent press

2:02

attention has been like an oxygen blast for

2:05

Helga. He's attended screenings

2:07

in several cities around Germany. He's

2:09

spoken to the press about the film. From

2:11

what Mack and I can gather, Helga seems

2:13

proud of the illusionist. On

2:15

his Instagram, he penned a story that features a

2:18

14-week countdown to the Dusseldorf screening.

2:21

In between, there are shots of Helga painting in a room

2:23

at Culture Without Borders. There's Helga

2:26

on a boat wearing the Amish Pharrell hat. One

2:29

of the last images is of the illusionist

2:31

poster. Helga in a lake facing

2:33

the camera. The water is up to his lips.

2:36

He's smiling and flashing a V for

2:38

victory with the fingers of his right hand.

2:42

What he shows to the world, in other

2:44

words, is a beautiful easy life,

2:47

full of happiness, purpose, and friendship.

2:51

But the story playing out behind the pictures is

2:53

more complicated. In Helga's

2:55

wake, he's left a lake full

2:57

of broken relationships.

3:05

For Campsite Media, in association with Sony

3:07

Music Entertainment, I'm Bijonn Steven

3:10

and this is Chameleon, Gallery

3:12

of Lies. Episode 5,

3:14

Delusion.

3:25

You're listening to Chameleon from

3:27

Campsite Media.

3:38

You're

3:55

listening to Against the Rules, wherever you get podcasts.

3:59

Every

4:01

minute in your morning routine counts, and

4:04

I get that. My name is Jeff Pierre.

4:06

I'm the host of the 7 from the Washington

4:09

Post. It's a new podcast

4:11

where we give you the 7 most important

4:13

and interesting stories of the day, and

4:16

all in just a few minutes. You'll be

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caught up and ready to drop knowledge without

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missing a beat, I promise. Listen

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to the 7 weekday mornings.

4:25

Follow the show now. I'll meet you there.

4:33

You're listening to Camilia from Campside

4:35

Media.

4:37

I should point out that the illusionist isn't

4:40

just hagiography. As

4:42

Helga mentioned, Schultz has also captured

4:44

some of the less photogenic moments of his life. When

4:47

someone mentions that Helga hosted a seminar on

4:49

the concept of radical honesty, for example,

4:52

his ex-wife Dorothy simply bursts out

4:54

laughing. A review of

4:56

the film on a German culture website says

4:59

that it, quote, portrays a man whose

5:01

desire for advancement eventually turned

5:03

into greed. The review

5:05

also offers this comment on Helga. Aachenbach

5:08

seems like a nice guy. He's enthusiastic

5:11

and can be very convincing.

5:13

But once you've listened to him for a while,

5:15

you discover the less honorable motivations

5:17

behind his behavior. At a fair,

5:20

he tries to explain his fascination with art to a camera

5:22

crew. But all he really talks about

5:24

is money and prestige. With

5:27

the illusionist screening around Germany and Helga

5:29

back in the news, not everyone has

5:32

been thrilled to see his re-emergence. In

5:34

the spring, according to Helga's lawyer, he

5:37

was negotiating with Babette Albrecht's lawyer, Andreas

5:39

Erban, to avoid further court action.

5:43

Part of what was at issue, according to

5:45

Helga's lawyer, was how Babette was

5:47

discussed publicly. Helga's

5:49

lawyer seems to suggest that Erban wanted

5:51

there to be no public discussion of Babette

5:54

at all. When Helga first

5:56

told us about having Erban back in his life,

5:58

he sounded defiant. He

6:00

said it was his right to say what he wanted. He

6:03

has his freedom of speech.

6:05

He sounded like he relished

6:06

the idea of going back to court against

6:09

Erban, confident that this

6:11

time he would emerge the winner.

6:13

But by the time we spoke with Helga again, after

6:16

the Düsseldorf screening, something in

6:18

him had changed. When Mack and

6:20

I brought up what he told us about the recent threats by Erban,

6:23

Helga seemed much more resigned to accepting

6:25

the lawyer's demand that he not utter

6:27

Bebet's name. He seemed tired

6:29

of fighting.

6:30

It was Dr. Erban. We

6:33

agreed that whatever,

6:36

and

6:36

we should not even talk now

6:39

about it

6:40

in the details, but

6:43

I think they are not interested to

6:45

be with me on court. Helga says

6:48

now that it's best for everyone

6:50

if he keeps quiet and the Albrecht stay

6:52

out of the spotlight. I think they

6:55

would get a lot of public relations through

6:58

this.

6:59

So the situation is

7:01

that we

7:02

decided I'm not talking anymore

7:05

about Bebet and I

7:08

let be everything

7:10

like it was.

7:14

It occurs to me that this should be

7:16

a moment of triumph for Helga. He's

7:19

the star of a largely flattering feature documentary.

7:22

The German media is once again paying attention

7:24

to him, and this time that's

7:26

not because of the way he screwed over a client.

7:30

If Helga has some Norma Desmond in him, which

7:32

I believe he most certainly does, he's

7:35

been pining for another close-up for years.

7:38

But just when it arrives, he's not able

7:40

to fully enjoy the warmth of the bright lights.

7:43

Instead, he's got the aggressive lawyer of one of

7:45

the world's wealthiest women watching his every

7:48

move. And when he turns his

7:50

gaze away from the movie screen, he's

7:52

forced to confront the real toll his actions

7:54

have had on his friends and family. While

7:58

we're in Düsseldorf, Mack and I want to out

8:00

a gallery that David Akenbach owns and

8:02

runs with his girlfriend. We're curious

8:04

to see the space and the art, sure, but

8:07

more than anything we'd like to talk with one

8:09

of the sons Helga had with his second wife. David,

8:13

after all, is the only one of Helga's

8:15

eight children who has gone into the family business,

8:18

and so it's easy to assume he's got a unique

8:21

perspective on his dad's slippery psychology.

8:25

We pilot Bertie through a gentle rain and

8:27

park around the corner from the gallery.

8:30

We're buzzed into the door on the street, walk

8:32

up a flight of stairs, and arrive in a small,

8:35

well-lit room. An assistant

8:37

greets us. After some confused

8:40

back and forth about what exactly we're doing there,

8:42

she wanders into a back office to see if David

8:44

is available to speak, which

8:47

means we have a moment to check out the current

8:49

show. It's called Shift

8:51

and Shine by the German artist Sabrina

8:53

Podemsky. The central piece,

8:56

hanging in the middle of one of a few rooms, is

8:58

a boxing heavy bag rendered in white

9:01

ceramic. It's held to the ceiling

9:03

by chains. Looking at it, in

9:05

the context of our mission to speak with Helga, our

9:08

dealer son, feels at once strange,

9:11

appropriate, and evocative. David's

9:14

assistant returns. Later

9:32

that day, our producer Henry emails the

9:34

gallery to see if we can make an appointment with David.

9:37

The response is positive, and it seems like

9:40

it might actually happen. But

9:42

then the messages become less certain. The

9:45

assistant writes, Unfortunately,

9:48

David will not be able to do an official

9:50

podcast interview at all. His

9:52

PR agent advises him not to do

9:54

it. He's open for a conversation about him,

9:57

but not about his father.

10:00

I have to say, I find the honesty

10:02

in this note refreshing. And I get

10:05

it, touchy subject and all. That's

10:07

fine, Henry responds. Let

10:09

us know when we can set something up with David.

10:12

At which point, the gallery assistant

10:15

ghosts. And Mack and I are

10:17

forced to confront the accumulation of ghosts

10:20

all around us. Like when we tried

10:22

to talk with Dorothy, Helga's ex-wife, and

10:24

Lily, his daughter. Almost

10:27

the exact same thing happened. Initially,

10:29

Dorothy and Lily sounded game to talk, and

10:32

we got as far as sorting out a time to meet

10:34

on the Saturday night that Mack and I were in Dusseldorf.

10:37

But then, Dorothy texted, saying she

10:39

wanted to cancel the interview. She

10:41

didn't want to meet. She did say,

10:44

however, that we could read the text

10:46

she wrote explaining why. Here's

10:49

our intrepid interpreter, Minu, again. This

10:52

time, playing the role of Dorothy

10:54

Aachenbach.

10:55

Good morning, Mack. We just discussed

10:57

a bit. Neither Lily nor I want

11:00

to talk about the person. Sorry,

11:02

but after all these years of tears,

11:05

pain, incredible fights, and fears

11:07

he caused to me, to the children, to the

11:10

whole family, and his employees, we

11:12

have a good and happy life with a fulfilling

11:15

job now. Whenever somebody

11:17

dares to say just a little bit the truth

11:20

or criticize him, he's insulted,

11:22

and he gets very, very unpleasant. Please

11:25

understand this. We just want peace.

11:28

Good luck and success, Dorothy.

11:31

I can't argue with that.

11:33

But I still wondered what specifically

11:35

Dorothy was alluding to. Some

11:38

clues can be found in an interview she gave to

11:40

a German television station. Here

11:42

she is talking about the first chaotic moments

11:45

after Helga's arrest.

11:46

The

11:49

first time a marshal came, the children

11:51

were alone at home.

11:53

My son called me. He was completely

11:55

beside himself. And I thought,

11:57

no, this can't really be happening.

12:00

It was a dreadful day and it started

12:02

to dawn on me that our lives would

12:04

change forever.

12:06

Dorothy quickly came to terms with the realities

12:08

of a new life for her and her children.

12:11

I

12:14

don't buy clothes anymore, we don't go out

12:16

for food, but I don't mind that

12:19

at all. What's awful is

12:21

losing your sense of security, not

12:23

knowing how to get by the next month,

12:26

how to cope with the situation. That's

12:28

the worst part, not knowing that the

12:31

next day will bring. It really

12:33

took a toll on all of us.

12:35

There's even a clue or two in the illusionist,

12:38

like when Dorothy describes how she felt the

12:40

day Helga was released from jail.

12:42

I am convinced, and that's what

12:44

I've learned from all of this, is that

12:46

people cannot really change, not on

12:48

a fundamental level anyway, especially

12:51

if they don't want to.

12:52

It was the reason why I decided to get

12:54

a divorce in the end.

12:56

On the day my ex-husband was allowed

12:58

to leave prison temporarily for

13:00

the very first time, I wanted to go

13:03

for a walk with him, with our children and

13:05

our dog.

13:06

But the first thing Helga Aachenbach decided to

13:08

do was to meet with a journalist and do

13:10

some kind of report. The journalist

13:13

accompanied him to his lawyer, to

13:15

the doctor and the supermarket. It

13:17

was a huge PR thing,

13:19

and that's when I realized he hadn't

13:21

changed after all. He was still

13:24

the same old Helga.

13:25

We asked Helga what he made of Dorothy's

13:27

statement in the film, and he emailed.

13:31

Quote, I understand her a bit.

13:34

She built her opinion to get away from

13:36

me, which I accept. The

13:39

truth is different. But in

13:41

one point, it's clear. If you understand

13:43

what you have done wrong, you always must

13:45

work on yourself, not fall back in

13:47

old habits. David

13:50

has also spoken in the past about his father

13:52

and his father's fall. In an interview

13:54

published on a German news website

13:55

in 2019, David

13:57

says he believes his dad was under financial...

13:59

stress by the time he started working with Berthold. He

14:02

said, quote, over

14:04

the years, my father had built up a life

14:06

that was too expensive for himself, which

14:09

constantly had to be fed with money.

14:11

This is something I'd wondered myself. Was

14:14

Helga simply hurting for cash when he decided

14:16

to defraud Berthold? Helga had

14:18

waved this idea away when I'd brought it up on Lanzarote,

14:21

but at other times he told us he often had

14:23

plenty of art in his possession and very little

14:25

money. After his dad's arrest,

14:28

David had a hard time adjusting. He

14:30

told the German website, for

14:32

a month after the catastrophe, I didn't

14:34

dare go out the door. I buried

14:36

myself. Didn't say a word. But

14:40

ultimately, despite everything, David

14:42

seems to side with his dad in thinking that

14:45

the collection Helga built for Berthold was truly

14:47

remarkable, while his crime was

14:50

perhaps mad. I

14:53

remember an abstract painting by Gerhard Richter,

14:55

which is very important and was also shown

14:57

in important exhibitions, David said. Without

15:00

my father, Berthold would never have gotten

15:02

there. If the collectors and gallery

15:05

owners were honest, they would still work

15:07

with my father again today.

15:16

You're listening to Community from Campside

15:18

Media. This

15:21

Is History is back for our third

15:24

season, to tell you the story of

15:26

England's most diabolical ruler,

15:29

Bad King John. Join

15:31

me, Dan Jones, to find out what

15:33

happens when a king turns his back on morality,

15:36

the law, and even God. From

15:40

Sony Music Entertainment, This

15:42

Is History, a dynasty to die for.

15:45

Listen and follow on Apple podcasts,

15:47

Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher,

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or wherever you get your podcasts.

15:59

the rich and famous. From

16:01

what went down at Gwyneth Paltrow's ski

16:03

trial to the wild drama behind

16:06

the scenes of the Fifty Shades of Grey movies,

16:08

we're going to tell you about the other

16:10

terrible thing Harvey Weinstein did, and

16:13

we'll figure out how some rumours about

16:16

Kylie Jenner's lips led

16:18

to a scandal about her billions.

16:21

Listen to Infamous wherever you get your podcasts.

16:34

You're listening to Camellia from Campside Media.

16:38

When Mack and I first met Helga Ackenbach on

16:40

Lanzarote several months ago, he told

16:43

us he thought that 80% of his art network

16:45

abandoned him when he went to jail.

16:47

Wanting to better understand why they ditched him, we

16:50

tried to speak with a couple of the bigger names

16:52

on that list. Larry

16:54

Gagosian has been among the most famous

16:57

gallerists and dealers in the world for about

17:00

45 years. He opened his first

17:02

gallery in Los Angeles in 1980 and,

17:04

a couple years later, put on a show of Jean-Michel

17:07

Basquiat's work. Over decades,

17:09

he's represented Warhol, Cy Twombly,

17:11

Willem de Kooning, Damien Hirst, and

17:13

Jeff Koons, among many other

17:16

stars. Just last year, Gagosian

17:18

bought a Warhol painting for $195 million, the most ever

17:20

paid for a 20th

17:25

century work of art in a public sale.

17:28

Helga told us that, at an LA art fair in 1990, Gagosian

17:32

borrowed his booth for meetings with potential clients

17:34

and producers. That seemed

17:36

like an innocuous enough event, but

17:39

when I called Gagosian and asked if

17:41

he had a few minutes to talk about Helga, he

17:43

repeated just a single word, no,

17:46

and hung up on me before I could even ask to record

17:48

the conversation. Your

17:51

Hard Richter is one of Helga's oldest friends,

17:53

and while his response to my inquiry was not quite

17:56

as cold as Gagosian's, the result

17:58

was the same. Yeah, I think

18:00

we just have a few questions for you about

18:04

Helga and your relationship with him.

18:07

It's not me. Mr.

18:10

Richter is not

18:13

at the phone.

18:14

Ah. OK. Right, of course. So

18:16

you are here in the studio. That's OK. But

18:20

you can't speak him. Is there

18:22

a chance we could maybe speak to him later? Do you think he

18:24

would be interested in talking to us?

18:27

I don't think so, no. He

18:31

doesn't speak or

18:34

doesn't give any more interviews or something

18:36

like this.

18:37

I was told to email my questions for Richter,

18:39

which I did. Then I was told

18:42

Richter was not going to reply. To

18:44

be honest, this was not a shock.

18:47

The artist gives very few interviews. And

18:50

now, still enormously successful

18:52

in his 90s, he has very little reason

18:54

to. If I was surprised at all

18:56

by the brush off, it's because of how close Richter

18:59

and Helga once were, how important

19:01

each man was to the other one's career through

19:03

their respective rises in the industry. On

19:06

Lands of Roté, Helga told us that they'd grown

19:08

so close that in 1991, they'd

19:10

traveled to Japan together to make a documentary

19:13

film. Helga had always wanted Richter

19:15

to paint Mount Fuji. My idea

19:17

is, God, Richter, to

19:19

travel to the Fuji Sun. That

19:22

was my

19:23

theme.

19:24

And I said, you know what, Gerhard,

19:26

I invite you and I pay everything.

19:29

Helga says he pulled out all the stops,

19:31

even hiring a highly regarded cinematographer.

19:34

And then the question was, and

19:37

who is going to

19:38

be our cameraman? I

19:41

said, well,

19:43

whom you like?

19:44

He said, the best is David Lynch.

19:47

I said, okay, I'm getting

19:50

the cameraman from David Lynch. So

19:52

I got the cameraman from David

19:55

Lynch. Helga could not remember the

19:57

name of David Lynch's cameraman, and

19:59

we were not able to see it. to independently confirm

20:01

this. But it's a nice thought, isn't

20:03

it? And while it appears there were

20:05

many grand production ideas, the adventure

20:08

quickly fell apart. Helga had

20:10

booked their trip in the middle of typhoon season.

20:13

Helga says a storm destroyed the train tracks leading

20:15

to the mountain and washed away any chance they

20:17

had of reaching Mount Fuji. The trip

20:20

was doomed and some 90 hours

20:22

of film footage will likely never see the light

20:24

of day. Helga says

20:26

he has no idea where this film is now. He

20:29

says he and Richter's wife fought bitterly throughout

20:31

their time in Japan. A rift grew

20:33

between the two friends and they didn't speak to

20:35

one another for 10 years. And I don't

20:37

know what he was thinking. I was thinking

20:40

what the fuck is this? These days Helga

20:43

says he has little contact with the great artist.

20:46

They speak maybe a few times a year and

20:48

it never goes too deep. So

20:50

we are in a let's

20:52

say a polite situation but there

20:54

is, I have the feeling no

20:58

intention from him anymore

21:00

and for me it's a different thing. I like him because

21:03

I like his paintings. I love him. I think

21:06

I did too much for him for this situation

21:09

and he keeps it in

21:11

a little distance now

21:16

which I agree. Helga

21:18

says that his friendship with Richter essentially ended

21:20

when he went to prison. He didn't write

21:22

me. He didn't do

21:25

anything but he gave interviews and they

21:27

asked him, is that

21:29

now Helga has done good things and

21:31

the only thing is everyone knew that he's

21:34

a filo. Filo. It's

21:36

French meaning a trickster, a rascal,

21:39

a rogue, a crook. But

21:42

Helga isn't the only filo in the market.

21:44

Some people in the art world think that the business

21:47

is often not on the level. When

21:50

I first started looking into Helga, one former

21:52

director of a powerful New York City gallery

21:54

told me they thought that most people in the art world

21:57

are up to something shady. If

21:59

not, out. criminal. That

22:02

former director left the art world because

22:04

of that tendency.

22:06

Helga feels like

22:07

he got caught up in this shadiness. He

22:09

sees himself and his crimes as a

22:11

product of his environment. He

22:13

wrote in his second memoir, My narcissism

22:16

has played an important role in this.

22:19

But there is also a culture of the art market that encourages

22:21

cynicism and corruption where honesty doesn't

22:23

pay. The value of art is arbitrary.

22:26

There are few rules or supervisors and no

22:28

balance sheets and ratings that establish values.

22:32

A couple things here.

22:33

Yes, there may be a culture of cynicism

22:35

and corruption in the art world, but not everyone

22:38

responds to that by breaking the law. Most

22:41

people don't. So for Helga to suggest

22:43

that his behavior was a product of his environment

22:46

feels

22:47

not entirely

22:47

honest. But at the same

22:50

time, it's also true that a lack

22:52

of transparency and regulation in a market

22:54

makes it easier for bad actors to take advantage

22:56

of other people. The opaque quality

22:58

of the world Helga moves in is something that came

23:01

up in our conversation with Colgate professor Bryn

23:03

Hatton. Art's value is a

23:05

fiction and it's just

23:07

a set of agreements that are being made between

23:10

the various players of the game. And

23:12

this kind of thinking about what art, you know,

23:14

inherently is and what kind of value it

23:16

represents in the world is

23:19

an old question that artists have been messing with

23:21

for a long time. Even so,

23:23

not everyone feels that the art market

23:26

is more corrupt than any other business. Benjamin

23:29

Godsell is an art advisor with 20 years of

23:31

experience. He's also a co-host

23:33

of the podcast, Nota Bene, this week in

23:35

the art world. So you'd say you're familiar

23:38

with the art market. Yeah, I'm an expert.

23:40

People pay me an awful lot of money to know what the

23:42

fuck I'm talking about. And he's emphatic

23:44

that the larger art world is not the sea of corruption

23:47

Helga would have us believe. Although

23:49

he's quick to say that art is one of the last

23:51

not fully transparent markets and

23:53

that it runs on information asymmetry.

23:56

There's very little from my experience at

23:58

least of a recent art, Art of Life. last 25

24:00

to 30 years, there's very

24:02

little fake art. What you see are things on the margin.

24:05

People selling things they don't maybe really have access to

24:07

and then trying to get access to it after the fact,

24:10

things of that nature. But

24:12

you don't really see that much theft, I

24:14

wouldn't say, or outright fraud. You

24:17

see people trying to take a bigger slice of the pie

24:19

than maybe their ethically, that

24:21

ethically is rightfully theirs, but don't see that

24:24

much wholesale stealing of the pie. It's

24:26

also a very small world, a place where

24:28

you might bump into someone you're making a deal with at

24:30

a midweek cocktail party. The only thing

24:33

you kind of have in this world is your reputation, your

24:35

good name. And I think it's very easy for

24:37

your reputation to be corrupted in such a small

24:40

space. Within such

24:42

an intimate community, it makes sense that

24:44

if you're someone who has poisoned their reputation, someone

24:47

who can't ever be entirely trusted, very

24:50

few people would want anything to do with

24:52

you. Post-prison, Helga's

24:54

reputation is shot.

24:59

You're listening to Camilia

25:01

from Campside Media. You're

25:07

listening to Camilia from Campside Media.

25:10

I've spent months thinking about Helga's life and

25:12

work, and at this point I feel like

25:14

I have a sense of what he's about. He's

25:17

a man who's continually looking for strategic

25:19

advantages over his competitors and

25:21

his clients, and sometimes even

25:23

his friends. And that, I

25:26

can imagine, pisses a lot of people

25:28

off. No one wants to be treated

25:30

like a fool, especially if you're a client

25:33

and you've given your trust and money to someone

25:35

else. Which was, Colgate's

25:37

Brinhatton thinks, the dynamic with the

25:39

Albrechts that led to Helga's collapse. When

25:42

they began to invest in art, they

25:44

understood none of its weird,

25:47

particular machinations or

25:49

any of the social systems or any

25:52

of its particularities.

25:54

Not to mention even just the art

25:56

itself. These were not art people. They

25:58

were not

25:59

collectors.

25:59

who were in their lane. They were kind of plunging

26:02

headfirst into a 60 million

26:05

euro investment into

26:07

this world that they didn't understand. Haddon

26:09

believes that even though the collection Helga bought

26:11

for them appreciated greatly, the resentment

26:14

Babette felt over the deception, the way

26:16

it made her look foolish, was what drove her

26:18

to seek justice. Everybody was still

26:20

ending up in the blast, right? Everything

26:23

worked out, essentially. Better

26:25

than expected, even. But

26:27

this is the deal with sort of, you know, the

26:30

ultra rich. They like to play

26:32

games with money. Money doesn't have,

26:35

oftentimes, very tangible meaning, right?

26:38

But they just really, really don't like

26:40

the idea that they're being taken advantage

26:43

of, even if it's just the principle of

26:45

the thing and there's no real

26:47

kind of loss. Even

26:49

if the effect of all of this game

26:52

playing affects them zero

26:54

in the real kind of tangible, physical, real

26:57

sense, even if they come out on

26:59

top, it's just the idea that they're being messed

27:01

with that will send people like the

27:03

family in question into really

27:06

lengthy court proceedings just to prove a point.

27:10

If you didn't know Helga, it'd be easy

27:12

to think that in his remaining years, in

27:15

the third act of his life, he'd cultivate

27:17

a quieter, more peaceful existence.

27:20

Sleepy nights on the renovated pig form of

27:22

Culture Without Borders or under the brilliant

27:24

stars of Lanzarote.

27:27

Having been burned once, he might be

27:29

reluctant to fly too close to the hot

27:31

center of the art world.

27:32

He appears chastened by Babette's latest

27:35

legal threats.

27:36

But I know Helga,

27:38

and I remember conversations like this one

27:40

we had with him back on the island. And it's

27:43

when you're here and it's so peaceful and quiet,

27:45

do you miss the excitement of

27:48

the deals, the big deals?

27:50

No, you don't.

27:53

But honestly, this is

27:58

out of record? Yeah. But

28:05

right now I am a consulting project

28:08

for NU-MIR-CM and

28:12

it could be possible, 70% could

28:18

be. I have the video

28:20

I can show you. Tell

28:22

us more about that. I

28:25

cannot talk about it yet. I am closed.

28:29

But it's

28:31

in the east and

28:35

it's a very rich man. I

28:39

don't know him but I

28:41

know his friends. And

28:43

his friend came and said he is 75

28:47

and he is thankful for his life.

28:49

He has something like 17 billion

28:53

and he was looking

28:55

for a donation for

28:58

his country. I said well I

29:00

have something for him. Eighteen

29:03

most beautiful paintings

29:06

of Picasso. It's

29:09

really true.

29:12

So you think maybe I'm

29:14

nuts. Scratch the

29:16

new Helga and the old one appears. The

29:19

deals are beginning to flow again. Or

29:22

at least Helga would like us to believe that. It

29:25

remains difficult to know if what he's telling us

29:27

is the unvarnished truth. Nonetheless

29:30

if the deal is real, moving these paintings

29:32

from the old master would be a tangible triumph.

29:36

Never mind that it goes against the advice of his friend

29:39

and priest or that this MO

29:41

drove Anna Berlett to keep her distance. This

29:44

is what he's lived for, as Bergeith Schulz

29:46

depicts in The Illusionist, and it's what

29:48

he's still living for. While

29:51

the film has won some praise in the German press, not

29:53

everyone sees it as such a radical

29:56

honest portrayal of a reformed man.

29:59

One reviewer summed it up like this. The

30:02

film intends to portray an art market gone

30:04

crazy. However, it very

30:06

much stays at the surface. It fails

30:09

to depict that the protagonist is not just

30:11

good at selling art, but also good at selling

30:13

himself. Towards the end, Brigitte

30:16

Schultz barely challenges him. He's

30:18

given a stage to portray himself as a victim of law

30:20

enforcement. He plays with the image of

30:22

having lost everything and living in poverty, while

30:25

having a huge estate all to himself and

30:27

getting the opportunity to reinvent himself

30:29

as an artist. The title of the documentary

30:31

almost takes on a double meaning, as

30:34

if the director also fell for the illusionist

30:36

a little. Mack and I understand

30:39

this dynamic. You want to believe him.

30:42

But the stories are always just a little too

30:44

tidy. Like he's writing a

30:46

fairy tale. I'm

30:51

tired. Tired of talking

30:54

again and again and again

30:56

and again. So

31:01

for myself, I decided

31:04

that I'm not for the future,

31:06

will talk in public

31:09

about my case. Helga

31:11

wants to change his ways. But that

31:13

doesn't stop him from working on what could be

31:15

his biggest deal yet. One

31:17

German billionaire came to me and said, Mr.

31:20

Aachenbach, you maybe are wondering

31:22

that I'm coming to you, but I know that you

31:25

have done this thing with Mr. Albrecht

31:28

and you will not be so stupid to take

31:30

more than we decided together what

31:33

you can take. Or looking for

31:35

new advantages. This is my honest

31:37

talking to you. You know what

31:40

I need is, I need from you,

31:42

the serious way. I don't like

31:44

to manipulate,

31:47

of course. All that and more on

31:49

the finale of Chameleon Gallery of

31:51

Lies.

31:59

wait for that next episode, you don't have

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to. Unlock all episodes of Chameleon,

32:04

Gallery of Wise, ad-free right

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a subscriber, you'll get Binge access to new

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stories on the first of every month. Check

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GetTheBinge.com to learn more.

32:30

Gallery

32:34

of Wise is hosted by me, Bichon Steven.

32:37

It's reported by me, Henry Levois,

32:39

and Mack Montanden, and produced by me

32:41

and Henry Levois. Mack Montanden

32:43

is our executive producer. This

32:45

episode was written by Mack Montanden. Our

32:48

story editors are Emily Martinez and Matt

32:50

Sherrard. Original music, sound

32:53

design, and mixing by Garrett Teigen. Recording

32:56

by Ewan Lai-Chramewin. Our

32:58

theme song is Wonder Barters by Dina Summer,

33:00

Dilipo, and local suicide. Our

33:03

fact checking is by Mary Mathis. Translating

33:05

and interpreting by Mito Mushtagi. archival

33:08

research by Vanessa Christopher Strinks. And

33:10

additional field production by Jonas Moy.

33:13

A special thanks to Emma Simonoff, Valentina

33:15

Delicia, and our operations. Doug

33:18

Slawin, Ashley Warren, and Destiny

33:20

Depp. Campsite Media's

33:22

executive producers are Josh Neen, Vanessa

33:25

Gagoriatus, Adam Hoff, and Matt

33:27

Sherrard. If you enjoyed Chameleon,

33:30

please rate and review the show wherever you get the audio.