German police say they have broken up a multi-million
euro international art forgery ring.
Police have
arrested two suspects alleged to be leaders of a group of six artists.
A series of
searches were carried out at art galleries, businesses and homes in six German
cities, as well as Israel and Switzerland.
Since 2005 the
ring is believed to have produced and sold more than 400 faked paintings.
They were
passed off as "previously unknown" works by such Russian avant garde
artists as Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail
Larionov.
The police say
they were sold for sums ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of
euros.
The arrested
men, aged 41 and 67 respectively, are accused of selling forged artworks to
customers in Germany and Spain for a total of more than £1.5m (1,7m euros) over
the past two years.
The suspected
counterfeiters are thought to be of Russian, Israeli and German-Tunisian
nationality.
Two years ago
an expert German forger and his wife were jailed for art forgery after they
imitated the style of lesser-known painters.
A number of
reputable dealers in the art world were fooled.
Source: BBC
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