German police bust crime ring selling forged Picassos

An international crime ring selling forged paintings purported to be by Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt van Rijn and Peter Paul Rubens has been busted by German police in the state of Bavaria, authorities have announced.

An investigative team codenamed “Dora Maar,” after the renowned artist who had a tumultuous relationship with Picasso, had been investigating the crime ring since the beginning of the year, Bavarian State Criminal Police said in a statement Friday.

Police said that investigators raided numerous locations across Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein in the early morning hours of October 15 and seized “a large number” of forged works, as well as documents, phones and computer equipment.

A 77-year-old German man from the town of Schwandorf, who is the main suspect, and ten other alleged accomplices are being investigated on suspicion of suspicion of attempted commercial and gang-related fraud involving art forgeries.

The investigation began when police became aware that the 77-year-old man had offered for sale two paintings by Picasso, including a portrait of Dora Maar.

Further investigations revealed that he also intended to sell a 20^th-century copy of Rembrandt’s De Staalmeesters for about $150 million. It was seized in Switzerland from the home of an 84-year-old woman, who is also under investigation by authorities.

“The bizarre aspect of this case is that the original De Staalmeesters is actually part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam,” police said.

The suspects allegedly tried to pass off the paintings off to potential buyers as the authentic original, even claiming that the Rijksmuseum possesses a younger copy of De Staalmeesters. And a 74-year-old man is suspected of preparing purported expert reports to confirm the authenticity of the artworks.

Additionally, the main suspect is accused of attempting to sell 19 other forged works by artists including Anthony van Dyck, Juan Miro, Amadeo Modigliani and Frida Kahlo for prices between $465,000 and $16.2 million.

Last week, a real small painting by Pablo Picasso that was said to have gone missing earlier this month on its way from Madrid to an exhibition in Granada was recovered by police in Spain.