Canadian police announced on Friday that they have arrested eight people in connection with a massive alleged fraud involving the possible sale of thousands of artworks that have been “fake” and “wrongly” attributed to a famous Indigenous artist for decades.

“Over 1,000 obviously fraudulent paintings were confiscated. The total number of paintings produced and sold is unknown,” Kari Dart, OPP Assistant Commissioner, said at a news conference.

The works were promoted and sold with the signature of Aboriginal artist Norval Morrisseau, originally from the Thunder Bay, Ontario area.

A member of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civil decoration, this self-taught painter, also known as Copper Thunderbird, is considered one of the country’s most important artists and is exhibited in Canadian museums and abroad.

“Some of these painted works were sold to unsuspecting members of the public who had no reason to doubt their authenticity, and paid tens of thousands of dollars to obtain them,” police said in a statement.

The suspects, including a nephew of the artist, face a total of 40 charges. The alleged fraud allegedly took place over “several decades”, the police said after a two and a half year investigation.

Originally from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation, Norval Morrisseau was the originator of the pictographic style called “Woodlands” which uses sharp and bright colors and often depicts animals or scenes from Aboriginal mythology with shamanic influences.

Until then, most Aboriginal art was viewed from an anthropological perspective rather than modern art.

“He was the first contemporary Aboriginal artist to break into the mainstream art world in Canada,” said Kari Dart, recognizing “significant and unparalleled” contributions.

His “contributions and worldwide success may have made him an easy target for fraud,” she concluded.

He died of Parkinson’s disease in 2007 at the age of 75.