Thursday, 20. March 2008
Topic: ART - on March 20, 2008 at 11:36:00 AM CET
Art forgery operation broken up by FBI and Spanish police
Spanish police and the FBI have dismantled a multimillion-dollar international art forgery ring which duped hundreds of customers into buying counterfeit prints of works purporting to be by artists including Picasso, Warhol and Dalí.
Two Italians, one Spaniard and four Americans were charged in connection with two overlapping conspiracies believed to have netted about $5m (£2.5m). With the help of US gallery owners, fraudsters based in Catalonia and Italy used eBay to sell the fakes to victims in the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and Japan, US and Spanish law enforcement officials said. The bogus works were sold for between €1,500 (£1,180) and €20,000 to more than 1,000 clients.
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