Ugo Matulic is a Croatian pipe-fitter who migrated to Canada yet now lives near Houston, Texas, U.S.A. When Ugo Matulic started his NorvalMorrisseau.blogspot.com website in November 2007 he wasn’t known as Ugo Matulic. He called himself Spirit Walker, wrote in broken English, and signed his posts using the Ojibwa term; Miigwitch. People were fooled into believing that Ugo Matulic was of First Nation’s heritage because he wouldn’t reveal his true name or heritage. In 2009 this fact about “Spirit Walker” was publicly exposed by the Kinsman Robinson Galleries (KRG). In 2010 KRG sued Ugo Matulic in Ontario Superior Court for defamation. The action was eventually settled. Excerpts from Ugo Matulic’s sworn testimony in the Kinsman Robinson Galleries v Ugo Matulic action are set out below.
Read the Sworn Affidavit of Tim Tait filed in the Hearn v McLeod action wherein Tait admits that many of the paintings in Ugo Matulic’s purported Norval Morrisseau art collection were actually painted by him. Mr Tait confesses to receiving drugs and money for his forgeries from ringleader, Gary Lamont, who subsequently sold them, and many others, to Matulic.
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Open in new tab Excerpts from the Sworn Deposition of Ugo Matulic in KRG v Matulic
Ugo Matulic on his Art Degrees
Q. Okay. And do you have any degrees in art history?
MATULIC: A. None.
Q. Okay. And any degrees or studies in Native Canadian studies?
MATULIC: A. No. I’m just a collector who admiring North American Native Aboriginal Arts movement.
Matulic on his purported Morrisseau Art Collection
Q. You say that you are the owner of many pieces of original Norval Morrisseau artwork?
MATULIC: A. Yes.
Q. How many pieces do you own?
MATULIC: A. A large number of paintings.
Q. Do you have a number?
MATULIC: A. Like a specified number?
Q. Well, you can give an estimate.
MATULIC: A. More than 200 original artworks by Norval Morrisseau.
Matulic on his black-dry-brush signed Morrisseau Art Collection
Q. And I take it then, the number of the paintings that you owned were signed in that style?
MATULIC: A. Yes, large number of paintings.
Q. A large number. Do you have an estimate, of the 200 paintings that you own, the approximate number that are signed in that style?
MATULIC: A. Yeah. I would say, um, at least 60, 70 percent.
Matulic on his chosen name “Spirit Walker” and Jim White
Q. And so this is an e-mail from, looks like someone by the name of Jim White?
MATULIC: A. Yes.
Q. To Spirit Walker, spiritwalker2008@gmail.com?
MATULIC: A. Yes.
Q. Are you Spirit Walker?
MATULIC: A. Yes. Spirit Walker is my pseudo name which I have chosen for myself for that platform.
Q. Okay. And so your e-mail address is spiritwalker2008@gmail.com?
MATULIC: A. That is correct.
Q. And who is Jim White?
MATULIC: A. Jim White is individual who is now a motorcycle actor, who approach Kinsman Robinson to authenticate a number of pieces in 2001 or 2002.
Q. I take it you know Jim White?
MATULIC: A. I met him briefly once, a few years ago. Not on a personal level, but I have communication with him based on the fact that we involved in a similar issues about Norval Morrisseau’s artwork.
Matulic on Christian Morrisseau telling him that his father Norval Morrisseau said that Matulic’s paintings were fakes.
Q. So what I understand you to be saying, please correct me if this is not what you’re saying. Is that there were certificates of authenticity that were apparently signed by Norval Morrisseau
MATULIC: A. Yes.
Q. — and that Christian Morrisseau later said — I’m not sure if you said —
MATULIC: A. The father told him that, I’ve never seen these paintings, I didn’t do them.
Q. Okay. But then you retained experts in respect of the same paintings, to look at the signatures on the back?
MATULIC: A. That is correct.
Matulic on touching 1000 canvases personally and authenticating Morrisseaus for others.
Q. So when you said, “you have nothing to worry about, you have an original” that was a photograph?
MATULIC: A. Because — yes. I seen in my hands, more than a thousand original artworks of Norval Morrisseau. I smell the canvases, and I saw attached the cracked paint.
Q. So these thousand that you’re referring to, these are a thousand that you say are real?
MATULIC: A. I’ve been exposed with reliable paintings, from reliable sources, believing that they are authentic. And so far all my research, including confirmation by forensic experts, proven to be by Norval Morrisseau.
Q. But this painting here, you’ve said is an original, without having actually seen it. You just have a photograph?
MATULIC: A. That was sufficient for me, yes.
Q. Okay.
MATULIC: A. I’m not an expert, but I’m admirer and knowledgeable about Norval Morrisseau artwork.
Matulic on Ritchie Sinclair’s art
Q. And so then you say, “dreaming about lost opportunities.”· What are the lost opportunities you’re referring to here?
MATULIC: A. Lost opportunities, speaking about it back then, I was in good terms with Richard Sinclair who returned back to me, and legacy of Norval Morrisseau. He had the great paintings to advertise and I was happy to advertise it for him on the blog. And I was thinking about lost opportunities of KRG, by not having the opportunity to exhibit artwork of Richard Sinclair. That is what I am referring to.
Matulic on Ritchie Sinclair’s assessment of Matulic’s collection
Q. Ritchie Sinclair and who is he?
MATULIC: A. It was a friendly relationship in the beginning, and later turned nasty and we became enemies.
Q. When did it become nasty?
MATULIC: A. When he turned his tune by after claiming paintings authentic of the same paintings which Donald Robinson was buying at the galleries, and later he ended up calling more than thousand paintings forgeries.
Q. So when he says at the bottom: “You will be sued soon enough by those you fooled into buying your garbage.” I take it that your understanding there is, he’s saying your collection contains garbage or contains —
MATULIC: A. Of course. After first glorifying my efforts in the blog, later he turned and state like that. It’s typical of Richard Sinclair.
Matulic on investigative journalist, Joan Goldi
Q. Who is Joan Goldi?
MATULIC: A. It’s my friend, the investigators in the Norval Morrisseau story. Investigative journalist.
Q. Okay. Are they someone who have done — you said investigator journalist. Has Joan Goldi done investigations for you?
MATULIC: A. No. We’ve been exchanging the information based on this particular topic of Norval Morrisseau. We have two, more than one person investigating topic, all this information can be useful, used on one side or the other.