Tom Keating

Thomas Patrick Keating (1 March 1917 – 12 February 1984) was an English art restorer and famous art forger who claimed to have faked more than 2,000 paintings by over 100 different artists.

Early life

Keating was born in Lewisham, London, into a poor family. After World War II, he began to restore paintings for a living, although he also worked as a house-painter to make ends meet. He exhibited his own paintings, but failed to break into the art market. In order to prove himself as good as his heroes, Keating began painting in the style of them, especially Samuel Palmer.

He had a wife, Hellen, from whom he separated in his later years. They had a son named Douglas.

Forger with a cause

Keating perceived the gallery system to be rotten – dominated, he said, by American "avant-garde fashion, with critics and dealers often conniving to line their own pockets at the expense both of naïve collectors and [of] impoverished artists". Keating retaliated by creating forgeries to fool the experts, hoping to destabilize the system.

Tom Keating (American football)

For the famous art forger of the same name, see Tom Keating. For the priest and author of the same name see Thomas Keating.

Thomas Arthur "Tom" Keating (September 2, 1942 – August 31, 2012) was an American football player who played at the defensive tackle position. He played college football for the University of Michigan from 1961 to 1963. He also played 12 seasons of professional football in the American and National Football Leagues from 1964 to 1975. He was an AFL All-Star in 1966 and 1967, a key to the 1967 Oakland Raiders' defensive line that led the team to a 13-1 record and the 1967 AFL Championship, and was considered "the premier tackle in the old American Football League". He was known for his use of a distinctive four-point stance in which he lined up with both hands on the ground.

Early years

Keating was born in Chicago in 1942. He attended St. Mel High School in Chicago.

University of Michigan

Keating enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1960 and played college football at the tackle position on head coach Bump Elliott's Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1961 to 1963. As a junior, he started eight of nine games at left tackle for the 1962 Michigan Wolverines football team that compiled a 2-7 record and finished in last place in the Big Ten Conference. As a senior, he started all nine games at left tackle and was selected as the Most Valuable Player on the 1963 Michigan Wolverines football team that compiled a 3-4-2 record and finished in fifth place in the Big Ten Conference.