Italian police have seized over 2,100 counterfeit artworks and identified 38 people connected to an international art forgery scheme in a 22-month investigation starting in Pisa. The seized fakes, marketed as works by Banksy, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Pablo Picasso, among others, could have sold for over €200 million (~$212.5 million) if they had remained on the market without interference.
Per a press release from the Carabinieri, Italy’s main law enforcement agency, the investigation began in March of 2023, when its Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage seized some 200 pieces of counterfeit contemporary art from a Pisan entrepreneur, including a caryatid drawing falsely attributed to Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. Accordingly, police named the investigation “Operation Cariatide.”
The initial seizure led to the constant monitoring of various Italian auction house websites to track similar works for sale that could have been forged or lot entries that could lead to the counterfeit suppliers.
Investigators discovered that various auction houses across the nation were selling counterfeit works falsely attributed to Joan Miró, Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Gustav Klimt, Cy Twombly, Marc Chagall, Claude Monet, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Giacometti, Paul Klee, Vincent van Gogh, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jackson Pollock, Keith Haring, Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, and British street artist Banksy — with these last two artists being the most replicated of all.
A report from the Italian Ministry of Culture indicates that the investigation uncovered three forgery workshops situated in painting laboratories in the regions of Tuscany and Veneto, as well as a wide network of scheme participants across Spain, Belgium, and France who liaised with Italian auction houses to facilitate the sale of counterfeit works at eyebrow-raising prices.
“In particular, three works by artists Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Piet Mondrian, whose works are usually sold at international auctions for tens of millions of euros, had been auctioned off at a Pisan auction house for the sum of approximately €4,000 [~$4,249] each,” reads a statement from the Ministry of Culture’s report.
Three additional fabrication sites were discovered across Europe, as were hundreds of falsified certificates and stamps of authenticity. The Carabinieri and the public prosecutor’s office in Pisa attest that Warhol and Banksy, as fixtures of the Pop and street art movements, had the most counterfeited pieces — and that some of the forged works might have ended up in well-established institutions.
The Museo M9 Mestre in Venice came under fire last March for including what turned out to be two fake artworks in its Banksy: Painting Walls exhibition organized in collaboration with the Italian cultural events group MetaMorfosi. The works were withdrawn from the show and taken for investigation by the Carabinieri after Banksy expert Stefano Antonelli filed a legal complaint against the museum alleging that they were “low-quality fakes.”
Neither the Carabinieri nor the public prosecutor’s office of Pisa immediately responded to Hyperallergic‘s inquiries. The individuals identified have yet to be formally charged or sentenced as the investigation continues.
