Spanish authorities have seized five Old Master forgeries worth a total of €76 million ($84 million). Four of the paintings were being sold as the works of Francisco Goya, and one as a Diego Velázquez. The police’s Patrimonio Histórico division conducted two separate raids in Valencia, Spain, to confiscate the fake artworks.
The sellers were attempting to market the paintings to art dealers earlier this year when investigators got wind of the fraudulent activity. Authorities have interviewed four suspects but have not made any arrests.
The sellers produced fake provenance documents in an attempt to convince potential buyers that the paintings were authentic. Gabriela Bravo, the head of the regional government’s justice department, noted that art forgery is the fourth-most lucrative type of crime in Spain, following drugs, weapons, and prostitution.
Manuela Mena, a Goya specialist, and David Gimilio, an art technician at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, both confirmed that the artworks were forgeries. The forged paintings were not of high quality, and it did not take long to identify them as fake.
The most valuable painting was a copy of Velazquez’s Portrait of Mariana of Austria, worth €50 million ($55 million). The painting was cropped to show only the subject’s face. Two of the fake Goyas were priced at €7 million ($7.7 million) each and copied works by Anton Rafael Mengs. The third was worth €8 million ($8.8 million) and was made in the style of Carlo Maratta or Pietro Antonio de Pietri. The final forgery, titled Allegory of the Pillar of Zaragoza, had an asking price of €4 million ($4.4 million) and was of “very low quality.”
All of the forgeries were believed to have come from the same owner, a Valencia collector who died in 2020. The police have partnered with the Museu Valencià de la Illustració i de la Modernitat to exhibit 112 counterfeit artworks seized in recent years. The five new forgeries will be added to the exhibition, which runs until September 3.
The Spanish authorities noted that this type of crime devalues the work of great painters and has significant consequences for the art world. It is essential to ensure that such forgeries are identified and removed from circulation to preserve the integrity of the art market.