SUPPLIED

Vue d'Elne, a painting thought to have been painted by French artist Etienne Terrus around 1900.

A French art museum has discovered more than half its collection of paintings are fake, the BBC reports.

Elne, in the south of France, is home to a museum dedicated to its famous son, the painter Étienne Terrus who was born there in 1857 and died there in 1922.

The local council in Elne had been steadily collecting artworks attributed to Terrus since the Terrus museum opened in 1994, spending €160,000 (NZ$223,000) on paintings, drawings and watercolours.

But on Friday the museum announced more than half its paintings had been proven to be forgeries. Elne Mayor Yves Barniol told French media the situation was "a disaster".

READ MORE:
* 'Loveable rogue' as colourful as his forgeries
* Alexander Turnbull Library caught out with forged Lindauer portrait
* 'Fake' artworks seized as exhibition shuts for investigation

Several months ago, visiting art historian Eric Forcada alerted the Terrus museum that some of its paintings were fake.

The museum assembled a committee of experts from the cultural world, who inspected the works and concluded that 82 of them - more than half the museum's collection - had not been painted by Terrus.

One French outlet claimed some of the works depicted buildings that hadn't yet been built when Terrus died.

In interviews on Friday, as the museum reopened after renovations, Barniol apologised those who had visited the museum in good faith.

The town hall has filed a complaint against those who ordered, painted, or sold the fake paintings.

Local police are investigating the case, which they say could affect other regional artists too.

 - Stuff