German and Swiss authorities have launched a massive police operation against an international art forgery ring accused of attempting to sell fake masterpieces by renowned artists including Picasso, Rembrandt, and Rubens. Bavarian police announced on Friday that the sophisticated criminal network involved eleven suspects who tried to sell twenty allegedly forged paintings for prices ranging from 400,000 to 130 million euros.
The investigation centered around a 77-year-old German man identified as the primary suspect, who allegedly orchestrated the elaborate scheme with ten accomplices. The group targeted works by some of history's most celebrated artists, including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Amedeo Modigliani, and Frida Kahlo, in addition to Flemish masters like Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens.
Police suspicions were first aroused when the main suspect attempted to sell two supposedly original Picasso paintings, including a portrait of Dora Maar, the famous French photographer and artist who was Picasso's lover and muse. The criminal operation became even more audacious when investigators discovered the group's attempt to sell a copy of Rembrandt's masterpiece "The Sampling Officials of the Drapers' Guild" for 120 million Swiss francs.
The original Rembrandt painting, described as the Dutch master's last great group portrait, is housed in the prestigious Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in the Netherlands. However, the suspects possessed what experts believe to be a 20th-century copy of the work, which was in the possession of an 84-year-old Swiss woman who has also become the subject of investigation by German and Swiss authorities.
In an extraordinary display of criminal creativity, the suspects attempted to convince potential buyers that their copy was actually the authentic original, while claiming that the version displayed in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam was itself a fake. This reverse psychology approach to art fraud represents a new level of sophistication in the world of art crime, as criminals sought to undermine the credibility of one of Europe's most respected museums to legitimize their forgeries.
The coordinated international police operation took place on October 15, with simultaneous raids conducted across multiple locations in southern Germany, including the cities of Schwandorf, Munich, Erlangen, and Stuttgart. Additional searches were carried out in Berlin and Potsdam, while Swiss authorities executed warrants in five cantons, including Basel, as well as in Liechtenstein, demonstrating the truly international scope of the investigation.
German police have issued arrest warrants for two key figures in the operation: the 77-year-old primary suspect and a 74-year-old accomplice residing in western Germany. The second suspect allegedly played a crucial role in the scheme by creating fraudulent expert assessments designed to authenticate the forged artworks and convince buyers of their legitimacy. Despite the serious charges against them, both men have been released under specific conditions while the investigation continues.
The Swiss copy of the Rembrandt painting has been seized by police as evidence in the ongoing investigation. Art experts and law enforcement officials are now working to determine the full extent of the forgery operation and identify any additional victims who may have been targeted by the criminal network. The case highlights the ongoing challenges faced by the international art market in combating sophisticated forgery schemes that exploit the high values and sometimes unclear provenance of masterpiece artworks.
