Five works: two Goyas, a Juan de Juanes, a Miró and a Renoir. These pieces have been seized by the Heritage Group of the Valencian Autonomous Police and were presented to the press yesterday. A woman has been arrested accused of the crimes of fraud and document falsification and four other people are being investigated for crimes of fraud. They were all the owners of the paintings who were trying to get rid of the fake works. They have been caught in their will to be scammers.
It is not an isolated case. This Group, which has been active since 2014, has carried out more than 2,000 interventions in which around 6,000 fraudulent pieces of art have been seized. A figure that illustrates the dimension of a problem that makes clear the extent of the scam and the number of unsuspecting people who are scammed, who believe that the works they have purchased or, in many cases, have inherited, are true. Art forgery is the fourth criminal business that moves the most money worldwide, only behind drug trafficking, branches and prostitution, according to sub-inspector Antonio López stressed yesterday.
The case that was presented yesterday was that the two pieces by Goya, Scene of Independence and the Portrait of the Baron of Alcalí, and the Ecce Homo Juan de Juanes were going to be introduced into the market through art auction houses. The other two works, an untitled one allegedly by Miró and a vase of flowers by Renoir, were on the Spanish market to be sold. Regarding Miró's work, the Heritage group consulted with the entity that manages the artist's works, which confirmed that it is a fake painting, the same as the supposed Renoir. After its evaluation by experts it was confirmed that it was false.
The owner of the fake Juan de Juaner even had a forged certificate. That is why she is charged with the crimes of fraud and document falsification. According to the police, she said that the work was an inheritance from her mother who had bought it from an antique dealer in Madrid. The Valencian artist painted on boards and not on canvas, and that was the key to discovering the falsehood of a work that was going to sell for 30,000 euros.
In Goya's works the fraudulent dynamics are curious. In the case of Scene of Independence, her owner said that he had her thanks to an inheritance from her grandmother. She had an appraisal that estimated that if the work had been authentic, it could have been worth 1.8 million euros. The other, the 'Portrait of the Baron of Alcalalí', was purchased for the equivalent of 238,000 euros in 1999. Its owner was the victim of a scam and bought it as an investment, believing in its veracity. Supposedly, upon realizing the deception, he tried to sell it to recover the money.
Sub-inspector Antonio López commented that "it is rare that we receive a complaint for having been defrauded in the purchase of a work of art. The victim thinks that they are going to be left without a piece and without money, so they usually turn to a dealer." who sells anything for a commission." He explained that in these cases, as happens when a counterfeit bill is accessed, "rarely" the owners who have been scammed report it so as not to be left without the work and the money.
Likewise, he explained that although the falsification of works of art for sale has always existed, in recent years they have detected an increase in these crimes since people with high purchasing power become interested in this type of purchase to launder money, as well as terrorist groups that are also dedicated to the buying and selling of counterfeit works to finance terrorist acts.
The Minister of Justice, Elisa Núñez, also participated in the presentation of the seized works; and the Generalitat Police Commissioner, Marisol Conde. This intervention is added to the one carried out last April by the Generalitat Police, which intercepted another five false paintings that were attributed to Francisco de Goya and Diego de Velázquez and that were going to be sold on the market as authentic for a value of 76 million euros.
Since March 28, the Museu Valencià de la Il·lustració i de la Modernitat (MuVIM) has hosted the exhibition 'Falso. The art of deception or the deception of art', which exhibits a total of 112 counterfeit works of art seized by the Heritage Group of the Generalitat Police in recent years. After being extended, the exhibition will be open to the public until Sunday, September 10.
