Daniel Elie Bouaziz Indicted on Charges Related to Art Forgery Scheme – ARTnews.com

Disgraced Florida artwork seller Daniel Elie Bouaziz has been indicted on costs of wire fraud, mail fraud, and revenue laundering for allegedly peddling reproductions of functions by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Banksy, among the other notable artists, as originals.

Bouaziz was arrested in May perhaps for his alleged involvement in the operation, following an F.B.I. raid of one particular of his Palm Beach front galleries, Danieli Wonderful Artwork, in December 2021.

Bouaziz faces up to 20 yrs in prison and a high-quality of $500,000 if he is convicted on the 4 prices.

Bouzaiz also owns Galerie Danieli on Truly worth Avenue, a popular place for outposts of blue-chip galleries. The F.B.I. indictment states that the fraudulent artwork sold from Bouaziz’s enterprises was initially stated on online auction web pages at small costs Bouaziz purchased them and promoted them as originals. He supplied misleading provenance paperwork to build the physical appearance of authenticity, as effectively as “false assertions and appraisals”, according to the indictment, with a stamped signature block that read through “Daniel Bouaziz, Certified International Great Art Appraiser.”

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Amid the the fraudulent will work believed to have been marketed by the Algeria-born French art vendor was a “Basquiat” that he acquired on LiveAuctioneers for $495, authorities mentioned.  The seller allegedly flipped the get the job done to an undercover FBI agent for $12 million. A member of the Basquiat estate’s considering the fact that-disbanded authentication committee recognized the work as a phony, according to the criminal complaint affidavit.

Bouaziz is also accused of obtaining offered a Roy Lichtenstein print to an undercover agent for $25,000. A comparison of the copy with an image of the initial in the artist’s catalogue raisonné discovered many evident differences in the color techniques.

The authorities became concerned just after clients of Bouaziz started off to demand their payments back, with no accomplishment.

“Other victims, who also reported problems to Bouaziz about the authenticity of their acquired operate, each ahead of and immediately after the execution of the gallery lookup warrants, gained some reimbursement from Bouaziz,” the grievance reported.