Three suspected members of an art
forgery ring were arrested in the Spanish cities of Zaragoza and
Tarragona, El Pais reported.
Accused of peddling drawings falsely attributed to Miró, Picasso, and
Matisse, they’ve been charged with crimes against intellectual property
and fraud.
The police first caught whiff of their
dealings in July 2014, during a routine check on the border of Spain and
Andorra. Inside the car of an Andorran resident they found drawings signed by
Miró. Though the man was carrying documents attesting to their authenticity,
police decided to go ahead and have them inspected by several experts. All
confirmed that the drawings were counterfeit.
The man was then placed under
surveillance by the Historical Heritage Group of the Civil Guard for an
operation called “Mirones.” He was observed traveling frequently from Andorra
to Zaragoza, where he would meet with gallery owners and collectors. He
would often deposit fake artworks in the office of a lawyer in Tarragona, so as
to avoid the possibility of them being intercepted at the border.
“Once we collected and processed all
the information, we proceeded to the operational phase of the operation,
arresting this person and charging two others, including a gallery of art from
Zaragoza that allegedly collaborated as an intermediary for the sale of
the forgeries,” the police explained in a press release.
Over the course of the investigation,
they discovered nine counterfeit paintings: six attributed to Miró, two to
Matisse, and one to Picasso that came with a false certificate of
authenticity. The arrest thwarted the sale of two lithographs the suspects
were trying to pass off as works by Miró.
This is the second time in less than a
year that Spain has made art-forgery-related arrests within its
borders. In April 2014, authorities arrested Spanish art dealer
Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz, who, along with his partner, Glarifa Rosales, has
been accused of selling more than $30 million worth of fake art attributed to
the likes of Warhol and de Kooning. The works were forged in
Queens, New York, then sold at Knoedler & Co. gallery for a total of more
than $80 million.
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu