ARTISTS
Italian police smash fake art racket worth millions
Italian art collectors paid millions of euros for fake paintings which they bought over the Internet, believing they were genuine
AFP
25 Aug, 2010
ROME, Aug 25, 2010 (AFP) - Italian art collectors paid millions of euros聽for fake paintings which they bought over the Internet, believing they were聽genuine, Italian media said Wednesday, reporting a series of arrests.
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Police arrested 12 people for forgery and trade in fake artworks and聽recovered some 500 paintings, which had cost the collectors a total of seven聽million euros (8.8 million dollars), after an 18-month investigation, news聽agency ANSA reported.
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The unsuspecting buyers thought they were making a good investment when聽they purchased the paintings supposedly by modern artists including Matisse,聽De Chirico and Magritte.
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The seized collection also included a work attributed to 16th century聽baroque painter Guido Reni, priced at 300,000 euros, and another supposedly by聽19th century painter Teofilo Patini, "worth" 600,000 euros.
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The fraud was discovered after police monitored payment transactions on聽well-known websites, researched art archives and consulted art historians.
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Police said the fakes were "good quality" paintings, meticulously聽reproduced using the techniques of their supposed artists.
听听
Police arrested 12 people for forgery and trade in fake artworks and聽recovered some 500 paintings, which had cost the collectors a total of seven聽million euros (8.8 million dollars), after an 18-month investigation, news聽agency ANSA reported.
听听
The unsuspecting buyers thought they were making a good investment when聽they purchased the paintings supposedly by modern artists including Matisse,聽De Chirico and Magritte.
听听
The seized collection also included a work attributed to 16th century聽baroque painter Guido Reni, priced at 300,000 euros, and another supposedly by聽19th century painter Teofilo Patini, "worth" 600,000 euros.
听听
The fraud was discovered after police monitored payment transactions on聽well-known websites, researched art archives and consulted art historians.
听听
Police said the fakes were "good quality" paintings, meticulously聽reproduced using the techniques of their supposed artists.