A wide-ranging operation dismantled a ring of counterfeiters in Germany and Switzerland, the Bavarian police announced in a statement on Friday.
An extensive operation dismantled a gang of forgers of works by Picasso, Rembrandt and Rubens in Germany and Switzerland, the Bavarian police announced in a statement on Friday.
The main suspect, a 77-year-old German, would have tried – with the help of ten other accomplices – to sell twenty paintings, probably fakes, by Flemish masters, by Picasso, Joan Miró, Amedeo Modigliani or Frida Kahlofor prices from 400,000 euros (US$464,000) to 130 million euros (US$150 million).
How was the operation against the gang of counterfeiters?
On October 15, searches were carried out in several cities in southern Germany, in Berlin, Potsdam, as well as in five Swiss cantons and Liechtenstein, the Bavarian police said.
Police suspicions arose when the main accused tried to sell two supposedly original paintings by Picasso, including a portrait of Dora Maar.
He would also have tried to find buyers for a copy of Rembrandt’s famous painting “The Drapers’ Trustees”for an amount of US$150 million.
The original work – described as the Flemish painter’s last major group portrait – is in the collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The copy, “probably from the 20th century”, was in the possession of an 84-year-old Swiss woman, against whom German and Swiss authorities also opened an investigation.
The suspects would have tried to convince potential buyers that this copy is the original, and that the one in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is a fake.
The German police issued an arrest warrant for the main suspect, as well as another 74-year-old resident in western Germany, in charge of writing expert reports aimed at proving the authenticity of the works. However both were released on parole.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
