A major international operation has dismantled an art forgery ring involving approximately ten individuals who attempted to sell fake masterpieces by renowned artists including Picasso, Rembrandt, and Rubens. The coordinated raids took place across Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, with Bavarian police announcing the successful bust on Friday.
The primary suspect, a 77-year-old German man, allegedly worked with ten accomplices to sell twenty paintings that authorities believe are forgeries. The fraudulent works were attributed to Flemish masters as well as famous artists like Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Amedeo Modigliani, and Frida Kahlo. The criminals demanded prices ranging from 400,000 to 14 million euros for these fake artworks.
Law enforcement conducted extensive searches on October 15 across multiple locations, including several cities in southern Germany such as Schwandorf, Munich, Erlangen, and Stuttgart, as well as Berlin and Potsdam. The operation also extended to five Swiss cantons, including Basel, and the principality of Liechtenstein, according to Bavarian police reports.
Police suspicions were initially aroused when the main suspect attempted to sell two supposedly original Picasso paintings, including a portrait of Dora Maar. The investigation revealed the audacious scope of the forgery scheme when authorities discovered the group was trying to sell a copy of Rembrandt's famous painting "The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild" for 120 million Swiss francs.
The Rembrandt forgery case proved particularly brazen, as the authentic version of "The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild," described as the Flemish master's last great group portrait, is housed in the collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The copy, believed to date from the 20th century, was in the possession of an 84-year-old Swiss woman, against whom German and Swiss authorities have also opened an investigation.
The criminal group allegedly attempted to convince potential buyers that their copy, which has since been seized by Swiss police, was the original artwork, while claiming that the version displayed at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam was actually a fake. This bold deception demonstrates the sophisticated nature of their fraudulent operation.
German police have issued arrest warrants for the primary suspect as well as another individual, a 74-year-old man residing in western Germany who was allegedly responsible for writing expert analyses intended to authenticate the forged works as genuine originals. Despite the warrants, both suspects have remained free under conditional terms while the investigation continues.
