Forged works by Sorolla, Benlliure and Modigliani seized and 32 'dodgy dealers' arrested
Saturday, December 24, 2016 @ 11:16 AM
A FORGED art-dealing racket has been broken up and 40 counterfeit works seized, including numerous copies of those by famous 19th-century Valencian painters such as Joaquín Sorolla and Mariano and José Benlliure.
They included one by Amedeo Modigliani (shown in the above picture by the Valencian regional police force) which was due for sale for a six-figure sum.
Most of those already shifted had fetched around €170,000 apiece, but if they had been originals as the vendors claimed they were, their value would have been 'incalculable', investigating officers say.
A total of 32 people have been ordered to testify in the courts of Alcoy (Alicante province), Valencia, Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, Barcelona, Málaga, Pamplona (Navarra) and Cuenca.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com