Results for “fraud”
The Brugnara Art Fraud
San Francisco real-estate figure Luke Brugnara accepted $11 million in art — Degas, Picasso, de Kooning, Miró — then declared them gifts and refused to pay. His 2015 fraud trial became a courtroom spectacle.
The Knoedler Gallery Forgery Scandal
For over 15 years, the venerable Knoedler gallery sold some 40 forged Abstract Expressionist paintings — fake Rothkos, Pollocks, and de Koonings painted in a Queens garage — for around $80 million, before the fraud collapsed the 165-year-old institution.
The Greenhalgh 'Garden Shed' Forgeries
From a garden shed behind a Bolton council house, Shaun Greenhalgh and his elderly parents forged artworks spanning 5,000 years — most famously the 'Amarna Princess', which Bolton Museum bought for £440,000 as a 3,300-year-old Egyptian masterpiece.
John Myatt
A British painter whose 'genuine fakes' fueled what Scotland Yard called the biggest art fraud of the twentieth century, in partnership with con man John Drewe, who corrupted archives to fabricate provenance. Myatt now sells legitimate 'genuine fakes' openly.
Luke Brugnara
A San Francisco real-estate figure who, in 2014, took possession of roughly $11 million in art — works attributed to Degas, Picasso, de Kooning, Miró and George Luks — and then refused to pay, claiming they were gifts. Convicted of mail and wire fraud in 2015 after a chaotic trial in which he represented himself, briefly escaped custody, and was cited for contempt, he was sentenced to seven years. A $3 million Degas bronze remained unaccounted for after the FBI raid.
John Drewe
British con man behind one of the most damaging art frauds in history. Rather than forge paintings himself, he forged their provenance — infiltrating archives at the Tate and Victoria and Albert Museum to insert fake documents that authenticated works painted by John Myatt. He was convicted in 1999; many of the falsified records remain undetected.
Shaun Greenhalgh
British forger at the centre of the 'Garden Shed' or Greenhalgh family fraud, who from a council house in Bolton produced fakes spanning 5,000 years — most famously the 'Amarna Princess' bought by Bolton Museum. Working with his elderly parents George and Olive, who handled sales and provenance, he was jailed in 2007.
Robert Driessen
Dutch forger who produced roughly a thousand fake Giacometti sculptures as part of a major German-run fraud ring uncovered in 2009. He later openly sold acknowledged 'forgeries' as legal replicas, insisting his skill rivalled the masters he copied.
Lothar Malskat
German restorer who, hired to restore medieval frescoes in Lübeck's Marienkirche after WWII, simply painted new 'medieval' murals himself — including turkeys, unknown in medieval Europe. He remarkably reported his own fraud, and the ensuing trial inspired Günter Grass's 'The Rat'.
Pei-Shen Qian
Chinese-born painter in Queens who produced the fake Rothkos, Pollocks, and de Koonings at the heart of the Knoedler Gallery scandal — the fraud that toppled New York's oldest art gallery. Indicted in 2014, he fled to China, which does not extradite its citizens.
José Carlos Bergantiños Díaz
Spanish dealer who, with his partner Glafira Rosales and brother Jesús Ángel, orchestrated the Knoedler forgery scheme — sourcing Pei-Shen Qian's fakes and inventing a mysterious anonymous collector, 'Mr. X', as their provenance.
Jesús Ángel Bergantiños Díaz
Brother of José Carlos Bergantiños Díaz and a participant in the same Knoedler Gallery fraud, helping to age and distribute the fake Abstract Expressionist paintings that deceived collectors out of some $80 million.
Glafira Rosales
Art dealer who supplied the Knoedler Gallery with dozens of forged Abstract Expressionist works painted by Pei-Shen Qian, backed by a fabricated story of a secret collector. She pleaded guilty in 2013 in a fraud totalling around $80 million.
Double Crossed Corbet
The Fakes Fight Back!
More than 50 counterfeit Norval Morrisseau paintings have been permanently removed from the market—but experts say thousands are still out there.
Father Daughter Forger Family's 2mil hobby
