Source: Eurojust
Following a successful major operation in November 2024 to uncover fake paintings, Eurojust has supported the Italian authorities with a new action to retrieve over one hundred false artworks worldwide. In this recent operation, 104 forged paintings of Picasso, Edvard Munch and Paul Klee were seized and brought to Italy. Eurojust assisted with the execution of European Investigation Orders to Germany and Spain, in order to retrieve the fake artworks and prevent them from being sold in auctions.
In 2022, the Italian Carabinieri’s specialised Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage started investigations into a specific group of forgers, who counterfeited works of the three painters. The Italian-based culprits used a special graphic design program to print images of the originals on matrices. These were then printed on paper with falsified watermarks and copied signatures of the painters.
To give the fakes a semblance of authenticity, the paper for the prints underwent artificial ageing treatments through coffee or tea baths. Accompanied by forged certificates of free circulation, in order to circumvent authenticity controls by experts, the counterfeited artworks were sent to auction houses outside Italy.
The investigations by the Carabinieri Command prevented certain fakes from being sold in Germany and Spain, through auction houses. Without this intervention and the support of Eurojust, the forgers would have gained at least EUR 1 million. The Italian authorities requested the support of Eurojust last year, following the successful previous operation to uncover an estimated 2 000 fake paintings.
The operations were carried out at the request of and by the following authorities:
- Italy: Carabinieri – Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage
- Germany: Public Prosecutor’s Office Stuttgart
- Spain: Investigative Court no. 9 of Barcelona; Mossos d’Esquadra – Central Brigade for Cultural Heritage