Xiao Yuan: Librarian at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts replaced stolen works with own replicas - and amassed £3.5m in the process

The 57-year-old said he spotted fake paintings in his first day on the job and had noticed more fakes replacing his own as time went on

Artworks by Chinese painter Zhang Daqian were among the stolen pieces. Pictured: Daqian's 'Lotus in the Wind'. File photo (Getty Images)

When Xiao Yuan took over as chief librarian at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts he spotted a potentially lucrative sideline.

In what was described as a “phenomenally extreme act of fakery” he began stealing and selling masterpieces, replacing them with his own replicas.

Xiao is reported to have admitted removed 143 paintings from a gallery under his care between 2004 and 2006, successfully auctioning 125 of them until 2011. By swapping the landscapes and calligraphies of 17th and 20th-century Chinese artists with his own replicas, Mr Xiao amassed 34 million yuan (£3.5m) which he spent on apartments and more paintings.

The 57-year-old Chinese librarian said in court that he spotted fake paintings in his first day on the job and had noticed more fakes replacing his own as time went on. “I realised someone else had replaced my paintings with their own because I could clearly discern that their works were terribly bad,” said Mr Xiao in the two-hour hearing to Guangzhou People’s Intermediate Court.

Although he pleaded guilty to corruption, Xiao said in his defence that forgery was rampant and students and professors could take out paintings in the same way they could borrow books. Phillip Mould, an art dealer, said there was more risk involved in trying to replicate older grandmasters than modern prints.

“This is quite a high-wire act,” said Mr Mould, who presents the BBC’s art investigation programme Fake or Fortune? He added: “It is highly unlikely this would [happen] in national institutions under the scrutiny of Western art critics. It would be ludicrous.”

The paintings were Chinese rather than Western ones which handlers might otherwise have been less familiar with, Mr Mould said. Artists whose works were stolen included the influential 20th-century artists Qi Baishi, who used watercolours, and Zhang Daqian – himself a master forger – who depicted landscapes and lotuses. Also listed on the court transcript was Rock and Birds by Zhu Da, a 17th-century painter and calligrapher who used ink monochrome.