Alex Trelinski
THE Policia Nacional’s Heritage Group based in the Valencia region has seized 22 fake works of art including 15 paintings attributed to Salvador Dali.
They were sold at auctions in Barcelona and Valencia, as well as via the internet for a total value of around €37,000.
Other artists that were copied were Antonio Saura, Joan Miro and Mariano Benlliure.
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Some of the paintings had falsified certificates of authenticity to back up the deception.
The Policia Nacional operation was conducted jointly with their American counterparts in California.
The police probe started last November and has led to the arrest of four people as alleged perpetrators of fraud and intellectual property crimes.
According to investigators, some of the owners of the fakes had inherited them from their ancestors and were unaware they were forgeries.
In the case of Dalis’s paintings, they were bought from various galleries in the United States.
All the works copied the style, techniques, and methods of the forged artists, including their signatures.
The Policia Nacional however has verified that all of them, including the certificates, were totally bogus.
