Italian law enforcement officials announced on Friday the sequestration of 500 works by British painter Francis Bacon considered to be counterfeit, as well as the seizure of various goods, including money, for a value of three million euros.
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Subject of several investigations
Five people have been charged in connection with this investigation for criminal association aimed at
"authenticating and putting into circulation fake works of art"
and
"fraud and money laundering"
, according to an official statement. .
The main suspect arrested is a collector from Bologna (North), according to the media, since 2018 the subject of two different investigations, specifies the press release of the carabinieri. A first investigation was launched after the discovery in the person concerned of
"numerous works of contemporary art (...) including two drawings signed by Francis Bacon, one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century"
. The second had been launched by the tax authorities who had found
"financial flows with foreign countries (...) incompatible with its legal sources of income
,
"
the statement added.
Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is famous for his triptychs, one of which,
Three Studies by Lucian Freud
, sold for $ 142.4 million in 2013 at Christie's in New York, ranking it among the ten most most expensive ever auctioned.
Read alsoA triptych by Francis Bacon sold for $ 84.6 million at auction without public at Sotheby's