Florida gallery owner busted for selling forged copies of high-end art pieces
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A Florida gallery owner has been arrested on federal charges for peddling bogus artwork parts, claiming the inexpensive reproductions had been in fact originals by Andy Warhol, Banksy, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat and many others, federal prosecutors said.
A criticism submitted in South Florida federal court docket Thursday accuses Palm Seaside art supplier Daniel Elie Bouaziz of mail fraud, wire fraud, and income laundering in his alleged plan to sell forged copies of high-conclude art.
Bouaziz, a French citizen of Algerian descent, was ordered released on $500,000 bail after an preliminary listening to Friday. He has not nonetheless entered a plea to the prices, in accordance to courtroom records. He could face quite a few several years in prison if convicted.
Bouaziz bought some of the solid artwork parts for hundreds of countless numbers of bucks apiece, prosecutors explained in a information release. An FBI criminal affidavit mentioned undercover brokers put $22 million down for a number of of the phony parts.
Saying to be an art skilled and an official appraiser, Bouaziz appraised the inauthentic artwork he sold to the victims at an increased price, the FBI affidavit explained. To give a single illustration, the FBI claims Bouaziz purchased a Warhol reproduction print for $100 and offered it for $85,000.
He operated two artwork galleries on Palm Beach’s famed Really worth Avenue, a single of the wealthiest destinations in the U.S.
“The FBI did not observe a one transaction in those people accounts in which Bouaziz or his galleries acquired high-benefit artwork,” the affidavit says. “Bouaziz acquired reduced-cost reproductions from on-line auction internet sites that he then resold to unsuspecting victims, as originals, at drastically improved prices.”
And even those had been reduced. For instance, an primary Andy Warhol painting would probable sell for thousands and thousands of bucks. Bouaziz, according to the FBI, marketed 1 of Warhol’s is effective called “Superman,” of which there were being a number of variations, for just $25,000.
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“I acquire about 200 paintings in auction each calendar year and I assure my stuff. I signify I am driving my stuff,” Bouaziz claimed in a dialogue recorded by the FBI. “I’m not obtaining items that everyone has. Which is why you really do not see them in the other galleries.”
The
affidavit does not say how lots of persons were victimized. Bouaziz will have a plea hearing on June 15. No trial day has been scheduled. Bouaziz’s temporary lawyer did not quickly answer to an email looking for remark Saturday.
The Affiliated Press contributed to this article.
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