Two fake works allegedly by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso can be seen during a presentation at the Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation in Munich on Friday.
Matthias Balk/AFP via Getty Images
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German police say they have busted an international art counterfeiting ring that tried to sell works allegedly by Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Frida Kahlo and others to unsuspecting collectors for tens of millions of dollars.
The scheme was allegedly led by a 77-year-old German from Bavaria with the help of ten accomplices, according to the source. press release from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office.
Patrick Haggenmüller, head of the art investigation department of the Bavarian Criminal Police Office (BLKA), stands next to a fake painting. Mary with child presumably by the Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck.
Matthias Balk/AFP via Getty Images
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Investigators say they discovered the scam when the main suspect tried to sell two supposedly original Picasso works, including a portrait of the Spanish artist's muse Dora Maar. (Picasso's painting of Maar entitled Bust of a woman in a hat with flowers sold last week for approximately $37 million, after having been in the family collection since its purchase in 1944.)
The unnamed ringleader was also apparently trying to sell a copy of the world-famous painting by Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn, known as SyndicsA 17th century portrait members of the Amsterdam Weavers' Guild for approximately $150 million. But the original of this painting, known in Dutch as Masters of Steelis in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Police say the fake was most likely a 20th-century copy owned by an 84-year-old Swiss woman who is also now under investigation by German and Swiss authorities.
Authorities say the 77-year-old prime suspect was trying to sell a Rembrandt painting known as Syndics. This work, known in Dutch as Masters of Steelis part of the collection of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.
Matthias Balk/AFP via Getty Images
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Other fake works allegedly offered for sale by the 77-year-old suspect included ceramic Picasso vases, Head examination Amadeo Modigliani and works presumably by Peter Paul Rubens, Joan Miró and Anthony van Dyck. Purchase prices ranged from $460,000 to more than $16 million.
According to investigators, one of the accomplices in the scheme was a 74-year-old man from Rhineland-Palatinate, who provided fake expert reports confirming the authenticity of the forgeries.
A coordinated series of searches by police early this month in more than a dozen locations in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein revealed a number of suspected forgeries that will be analyzed by art experts in the coming weeks.
