It is an incredible and sulphurous story of the art market: 250 false paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries, with at the head of this traffic, a brain, and around them, conned art lovers, talented forgers, a couple crooked auctioneers, bogus middlemen who swarm around auction houses and Parisian galleries, straw men, an expert "to whom we do not do it", a tenacious lawyer and the sleuths of the OCBC ( Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Goods) in Paris, the art cops.
Today, in Paris, their investigation is "almost complete".
“There are still things to be clarified and the international component to be dealt with,” indicates a source close to the matter.
Counterfeiters have vanished in Eastern Europe
At the Paris prosecutor's office, this unusual file, still under investigation, is on the desk of a magistrate.
Four people - the mastermind, the couple of auctioneers and the head of the counterfeiters - are indicted.
Counterfeiters have vanished into Eastern Europe.
A month ago, a fourth protagonist, "an intermediary", according to a police source, was arrested by OCBC investigators and placed in police custody.
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This drawer business started nine years ago!
“I have a client who approaches me, remembers Jean Aittouares, the Parisian lawyer, specialist in the art market, in charge of this case.
He bought a painting,
The Japanese Bridge at Giverny,
in an auction house in Le Havre for 66,000 euros.
He has doubts about the authenticity of this impressionist style canvas, signed Blanche Hoschedé Monet (1865-1947) ”.
False painting by Blanche Hoschedé Monet sold in an auction house in Le Havre.
DR
The artist, nicknamed
Monet's double
, is the beautiful daughter of the painter Claude Monet in two respects ... Her mother lived with the painter in Giverny.
And in a second step, Blanche marries her son Jean, with in addition, the impressionist inspiration… The young woman will become the model of the master, then the painter herself.
“The paint is fresh.
The chassis is new ”
In Paris, the lawyer and an expert from the Drouot district (IXth district) look into the case.
They decide to trap the brain, a fifty-something, who himself frogs as an expert and merchant in the Drouot district.
“We managed to come to the expert,” says Jean Aittouares.
The expert looked at this
Pont de Giverny
supposed to be from the beginning of the 20th century.
His sentence fell without appeal:
The paint is fresh.
The chassis is new
”.
The crook has decomposed.
The investigation was launched.
The OCBC police officers - these specialists in charge of searching for works of art stolen from individuals or cultural institutions, as well as the detection of counterfeiting, deception and fraud - were seized of the case.
A jackpot of 15 million euros
They identified other victims, traced the network that operated between Paris, the Parisian galleries, the Drouot auction house but also in Reims (Marne) and Le Havre (Seine-Maritime).
In Reims, the police will discover the workshop of forgers and… 600 paintings.
They are going to seize 250.
"This story, summarizes Master Aittouares, is the heist of the century!"
".
What a police officer confirms: "This is the biggest case of false paintings of the decade".
The business was juicy.
"At the rate of hundreds of paintings resold between 10,000 euros and 100,000 euros, that's a jackpot of nearly 15 million euros", calculates this source.
Dozens of victims did not file a complaint
The vein was well chosen.
"The crooks did not copy Picassos, deciphers a specialist, but intermediate painters such as Blanche Hoschedé Monet or the post-impressionist Henri Martin (1860-1943).
It was more discreet!
And easier to sell.
It is like counterfeiters trying to sell 500 euro bills at the checkout of a supermarket.
Cuts of 10 euros, it goes better ”.
“Finally, reframe a policeman, they caught up on the volume.
"
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The fact remains that in nature, there are, according to a source close to the investigation, dozens of scammed customers who have not lodged a complaint and have decided to remain silent.
