Forgers have copied famous works of art and resold them for very high prices. They operated in particular in Belgium.
Picasso, Van Gogh, Banksy, Warhol are all artists whose works have been copied by a gang of forgers operating in several countries.
The thugs operated in Belgium, France and Spain, countries in which they made extremely realistic copies of well-known works and then resold them via complicit auction houses in Italy. These complicit rooms included these fake works in exhibitions and affixed them with stamps of authenticity which gave them greater credibility.
To carry out this dragnet, Belgian police coordinated with their European counterparts.
In total, more than 200 works of art were seized. The loss for buyers is estimated at 200 million euros.
This large-scale fraud, according to the antiques dealer Harold t’Kint from Roodenbeke, should have been unmasked from the start. “In principle, works by artists such as these should all be listed. If they are not, there is a problem, especially if they appear in groups or in numbers“.
Picasso van gogh banksy warhol forgers
