A workshop exterior Rome containing 71 pretend work falsely attributed to well-known artists together with Rembrandt van Rijn, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol has been raided by Italy’s artwork crime squad, native authorities introduced.
The operation was uncovered by the Carabinieri Command for the Safety of Cultural Heritage police squad, which oversees artwork and antiquities crimes, per a report within the Guardian.
After receiving a warrant to research an area artwork restorer’s property on the outskirts of Rome, the work, in varied states of completion, have been seized by Italian police, together with a whole bunch of portray supplies, artwork catalogues, cast certificates of authenticity and stamps from now-defunct artwork galleries and collections, and proof of falsified artist signatures.
Early proof pointed in direction of an artwork restorer working inside one of many metropolis’s north districts. Accomplished forgeries have been reportedly bought on-line on eBay and Catawiki, a web based public sale platform specializing in artwork and collectibles, police mentioned. A crew from the general public prosecutors’ workplace in Rome and the forgery unit monitored gross sales websites, the place the discovered a whole bunch of work bearing the pretend signatures of artists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, together with Italian post-Impressionist Mario Puccini, Italian Futurist Giacomo Balla, and Belgian Luminist Anna De Weert.
The size and earnings of the rip-off are nonetheless undetermined. Authorities haven’t revealed the identification of the forger or that of any accomplices.
Late final 12 months, Italian police found one other forgery community throughout Europe involving 38 individuals with a $210 million worth at stake. The suspects had even organized two Banksy exhibitions in Italy, accompanied by a printed catalogue.
