Fake Artist Portfolios Sold for UK Visas, BBC Investigation Finds

Fake artist credentials were being offered for more than £100,000 (US$132,000), according to a BBC investigation that ARTnews reported on. The BBC published its findings on Friday.

An undercover BBC reporter was told that one firm could supply artwork produced in China. The same firm, the reporter was told, could arrange exhibitions, media coverage and recommendation letters, with a guarantee of visa approval.

The BBC named iCareer Consultancy and its sister company, ADArt Global Ltd. Both are based in Canary Wharf, an office district in east London. The BBC said both were offering fake artwork and immigration advice.

iCareer told the BBC, through its lawyers, that it denied offering any visa services. It said the consultant meeting described in the report was not authorised by the company.

The fake material did not stay in private hands. Molara Wood, a Nigerian art critic, told the BBC she found her name attached to online reviews praising two obscure artists. Those reviews were fake, and her name had been used without her involvement in them.

Molara Wood, a Nigerian art critic, told the BBC she found her name attached to fake online reviews praising two obscure artists.

The UK Home Office, the government department that runs visas, told the BBC that the visas of two Nigerian men were in the process of being revoked, meaning taken back. The men had claimed to be fine art photographers.

The visa route at the centre of the story is the Global Talent program. The UK launched it in 2020 to attract creative workers, including scientists and artists, from abroad.

The system can be targeted from the outside. Each fake portfolio was built to look like a working artist's record, with artwork, shows and press to match. Once a visa is granted, or revoked, the consequences fall on the people named in the paperwork and on the people who check it.