Greek authorities exposed a group of people involved in counterfeiting art objects V Thessalonikiconfiscated 123 fake paintings famous Greek artists who were expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of euros in an online auction. Three people were arrested.
Department of Cultural Heritage Protection Greece uncovered a network of counterfeit art after messages from the daughter of one of the Greek artists whose work was forged.
The counterfeiters planned to auction fake works attributed to famous Greek artists under the name “39th Greek Art.. The fraudsters expected to make a profit from 300,000 to 400,000 euros.
After receiving information, authorities attracted Collections Department of the National Gallery to check the auction catalog and confirm the authenticity of the advertised works.
Replicas included works falsely attributed to prominent Greek artistssuch as Alekos Fassianos, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Gikas, Dimitris Mitaros, Konstantinos Parthenis, Panagiotis Tetsis, Yiannis Gaitis, Dimitris Tiniakos, Yiannis Tsarouhis, Yiannis Spyropoulos, Georgios Sikeliotis, Dora Buki And Georgios Syrigos.
After confirming that the paintings were fakes, employees Department of Cultural Heritage Protectionincluded in Police subdirectorate for combating smuggling and traffickingconducted a search in “gallery” in Thessaloniki and nearby warehouses on the eve of the auction.
All 123 fake paintingsoffered for sale, especially to buyers abroad, have been identified and confiscated. The works of art were misrepresented as genuine works by various artists.
Those arrested were reportedly 70-year-old gallery ownerhis 42 year old daughter And 62 year old manwho is said to have produced copies of the original works of art. Authorities are continuing their investigation, identifying additional works of art whose authenticity and provenance are under close scrutiny.
In addition to the gallery discovered three workshopswhere they drew fake paintings related to two male suspects. The three arrested were brought to the prosecutor on Friday.
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