€200 Million Fraud Scheme: Italian Police Uncover Forgery Factory of Banksy, Picasso, Warhol, and Others
Italian police have uncovered a pan-European counterfeiting factory suspected of producing sophisticated copies of works by some of the world's most famous artists, including Banksy, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Gustav Klimt.
The international investigation team has led to the confiscation of more than 2,100 works and the arrest of 38 criminals in Italy, Spain, France and Belgium on suspicion of conspiracy to handle stolen goods, counterfeiting and illegal sale of artworks, foiling a huge €200 million fraud. This is stated in a joint statement by the Italian art police and the Pisa prosecutor's office on Monday, Corriere reports.
The investigation began last year when the Italian art police seized 200 fakes from a businessman's collection in the Tuscan city of Pisa, including a copy of a drawing by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.
This discovery led researchers to identify six counterfeiting workshops, including two in Tuscany, one in Venice, and three in other European locations. The suspects mostly made copies of Warhol and Banksy's works before making deals with various Italian auction houses.
‘The activities carried out have shed light on a transnational system of counterfeiters linked to compatible auction houses,’ said Teresa Angela Camelio, chief prosecutor of Pisa.
They have even organised two Banksy exhibitions with the catalogue issued in prestigious locations in Mestre near Venice and Cortona in Tuscany.
Camelio said that if the police had not uncovered the network, the artworks could have been sold at prices ‘close to the original works of the artists’ and such an event ‘would certainly have changed the auction market significantly’.
Other fakes have included 19th and 20th century art giants such as Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dalí, Henry Moore, Joan Miró, Giorgio de Chirico, Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian.
The works of the Italian modernist Modigliani are particularly vulnerable to forgery. In another case, a drawing attributed to the artist, which was going to be sold for 300,000 euros, was confiscated by Venice authorities earlier this year after the city's cultural protection department discovered it was a fake.
