German police opened the case of a multimillion-dollar fake paintings

MUNICH. German police announced the disclosure of an international group engaged in fake painting. Basically, the group specialized in falsifying the work of Russian avant-garde artists.

The German Federal Police said that its employees conducted more than a hundred searches at enterprises, in private homes and art galleries. Searches were renewed in different parts of the country, including in Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne, on Wednesday and Thursday. Searches were also conducted in Israel and Switzerland.

During the police activities, two suspects were detained, aged 67 and 41 years. They were taken into custody as the alleged organizers of the group, which included a total of six counterfeiters.

Police said the group has been operating since 2005, and during that time it sold over 400 fake paintings on the market, which were positioned as “previously unknown works” by world-famous artists such as Vasily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich. The cost of each work reached several tens of thousands of euros.

Anna Sidorova © Gallerix.ru