Falsifiers parasitized on painters of the middle price category and did not attract attention for a long time.
The FBI has been investigating a complex fraudulent scheme for a long time, and now there are concrete results. Donald Henkel, a 60-year-old artist, is accused of organizing a multi-year conspiracy to falsify paintings and sports souvenirs.
His home in northern Michigan was full of paintings (possibly fakes) and materials for their manufacture. There were so many items that the search lasted two days. No one has been arrested, however.
According to the American press, Henkel has accomplices in at least three other states: Virginia, California, and Florida.
There was an examination which proved that the pigments of one of the controversial paintings did not exist 100 years ago, at the time of its alleged manufacture. It helped to obtain the search warrant.
Henkel and his accomplices mailed the works. That made the crime federal. In total, the FBI warrant lists eight paintings so far:
In addition, Walt Disney drawings and sports memorabilia associated with American baseball stars are featured in the case.
The objects created by the scammers have fooled some of the leading experts and art dealers in the United States.
Counterfeiters specialized in representatives of the American movement Precisionism, a kind of magical realism. The counterfeiters chose artists who, although historically important, attracting the attention of investors, are not hyped names leading to multimillion-dollar deals. Gallery owners and art experts who have examined the fakes note that they are made at a fairly high level.
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