Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Forgery ring busted

Spain's Civil Guard has arrested three people in the cities of Zaragoza and Tarragona for trying to sell fake Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse drawings, El País reports. They have been charged with crimes against intellectual property and fraud.

It is the culmination of Operación Mirones (Operation Voyeurs), launched in July 2014 to put an end to an art forgery ring. The investigation kicked off during a routine check at the border control in Lleida, when the Civil Guard stopped an Andorran resident carrying a series of Miró drawings and their certificates of authenticity. The agents, suspicious, asked experts to analyze the works, which were confirmed to be fake.

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