Alec Baldwin narrates new true-crime podcast about art fraud

In his first announced project following the tragedy on the set of his Western film "Rust," Alec Baldwin will narrate a true-crime podcast premiering Tuesday.

"Art Fraud," written by Vanity Fair magazine's Michael Shnayerson, reports on one of the art world's most infamous forgery cases, that of a fake Mark Rothko painting sold by the prestigious Manhattan gallery M. Knoedler & Co. The resultant lawsuit and settlement led to the gallery's demise in 2011 after 165 years. A federal court in 2017 subsequently ordered Long Island art dealer Glafira Rosales, who had supplied that and dozens of other forgeries to Knoedler, to pay $81 million to the swindled buyers.

"This is a podcast about deception, greed and forgery in the art world," three-time Emmy Award winner Baldwin, 63, who was raised in Massapequa, says in a promotional audio clip. "Art forgeries," he adds, "only happen because there's money to be made. A lot of money." Baldwin himself, in 2017, settled a lawsuit with the famed art dealer Mary Boone over an allegedly fake Ross Bleckner painting he had bought for $190,000.

"In 1994 a woman previously unknown in the world of fine art walked into one of the oldest and most revered galleries in New York City," iHeart Radio, which with Cavalry Audio produces the podcast, says on the show's website, referring to Rosales, of Sands Point. "So began a relationship that would last 17 years and involve dozens of paintings that brought in more than 80 million dollars. But they were all fake," produced by Pei-Shen Qian, a Chinese immigrant living in Queens who later fled the country.

The case also was the subject of a 2020 Netflix documentary, "Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art."

Baldwin has been cooperating with law enforcement following the accidental death of "Rust" cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and the wounding of director Joel Souza on Oct. 21 in New Mexico, when the producer-star held an antique Colt .45 revolver that discharged an actual bullet after being assured by armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and assistant director Dave Halls it was a "cold gun" containing no live rounds.

Baldwin's attorneys last week filed to dismiss a lawsuit in the case, arguing that recompense falls under New Mexico's workers compensation program.