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For One Counterfeiter, It's Art, Not A Crime

June 19, 2012
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Hans-Jurgen Kuhl started painting when he was ten. He loved gazing at the artwork in Cologne's Ludwig Museum. As a young adult, he discovered silk screening and soon made something of a name for himself producing Andy Warhol imitations.

Years later, frustrated by his meager living as an artist, he decided to imitate a more difficult, but more immediately rewarding piece of art: the United States Treasury's $100 bill. Kuhl still considered it art, though the authorities used a different word when he manufactured hundreds of thousands of maybe the best counterfeit c-notes ever.

David Wolman, a contributing editor at Wired and author of The End of Money wrote about Kuhl for the magazine. He joins NPR's Neal Conan to tell the story of the German artist who made a name for himself counterfeiting U.S. currency.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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