Due to serious fraud in the sale of high-quality works of art, a gallerist was arrested in Berlin last week. The man is in urgent suspicion, cheated on several people and thereby causing damage of several million euros, the police say. In addition, there is an urgent suspicion of document forgery. He is accused of selling artworks with fake certificates, not having others delivered. The arrested gallerist, according to information from several media, was the art dealer Michael Schultz.
Because he could not repay a loan, Schultz gave a collector instead a painting by Gerhard Richter, among other things, reports the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". The collector had it delivered to Christie's in New York, where it was to be auctioned off. The auction house then asked the Gerhard Richter Archive of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden for information on the abstract painting and sent a photo of the work. There they realized that the version was a fake.
Already in 2015, the gallery owner in Berlin had been in court for a loan transaction, reports the "time". At the time, he had stolen a painting of Gerhard Richter from the police and the insurance company, which he had previously given as a pledge for a loan, even though he had sold it himself.
imago images / Thomas Lebie
Michael Schultz (right) with Georg Baselitz at a vernissage in his gallery (archive image)
On the homepage of the gallery owner, he reported that works of art by Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke belong to his program. Works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring were also part of his portfolio.
As part of the preliminary investigation against Schultz searched police officers of the State Office of Criminal Investigation Berlin five addresses in Berlin and two in Brandenburg. The officers seized assets of the gallery owner and provided evidence. A magistrate Schultz, however, had released because of his poor health condition under conditions again, reported the "Tagesspiegel".
