German police said they busted an international forgery ring that was trying to sell fake works for millions of dollars to unsuspecting collectors. The fraudsters claimed the works were by artists including Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and Frida Kahlo.
An unnamed 77-year-old German man from Bavaria is the suspected ringleader, the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (BLKA) said. Investigators believe he was helped by 10 accomplices.
The ringleader was arrested after he tried to sell two supposedly genuine Picasso paintings, one of which was a portrait of the Spanish artist’s muse, Dora Maar. Original Picasso works on the subject fetch lofty prices at auction; only last week, the Drouot auction house in Paris sold a painting of Maar for €32 million (about $37 million).
German police gave the investigation, which started at the beginning of this year, the code name “Dora Maar” as a result. They conducted searches throughout the country in cities including Schwandorf, Erlangen, Wissen, Dresden, Munich, Bad Harzburg, Stuttgart, and Berlin. Suspected forgeries were also discovered in Switzerland and Lichtenstein. Around 100 police officers and three public prosecutors were involved in the operation.
The main suspect is also accused of attempting to sell a copy of Rembrandt’s Syndics (1662) for $150 million. The work shows members of Amsterdam’s 17th century cloth makers’ guild, and the original resides in the permanent collection of the Dutch capital’s famous Rijksmuseum. German police said the fake work was probably a copy made in the 20th century that was owned by an 84-year-old Swiss woman. She is now being investigated by the Swiss police.
Among the other 19 fake works that the ringleader is accused of trying to sell are paintings purportedly by Anthony van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, Amedeo Modigliani, and Joan Miro. He was asking for prices between $460,000 and $16 million.
A 74-year-old man from Rhineland-Palatinate is accused of being an accomplice by making counterfeit expert reports attesting to the authenticity of the forgeries, investigators said.
“The investigation is ongoing. Among other things, all confiscated paintings will be examined in detail by experts and appraisers in the coming weeks,” the BLKA said in a statement.
