One of the strangest finds on the internet when seaching for Glafira Rosales is this photo — available for purchase as a framed, canvas or other type of print — where she is sitting beneath of portrait of herself painted by Yelena Tylkina. (via fineartamerica.com)
Glafira Rosales, the Long Island art dealer who has long been under investigation for allegedly selling counterfeit artworks by major 20th century figures, was arrested today and charged with tax fraud connected with $12.5 million of income secreted in Spanish accounts. The announcement, which came from Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and agents from the IRS and the FBI, was accompanied by a comprehensive criminal complain which suggests that the scale of her alleged crimes was much higher than had previously been reported.
According to the criminal complaint in United States v. Glafira Rosales, approved by Assistant Attorneys General Daniel Levy and Jason Hernandez, Rosales sold a total of 63 works of art to two Manhattan galleries identified only as Gallery 1 and Gallery 2. Gallery 1, which contextual information in the complaint suggests is the since-shuttered Knoedler & Company, bought the lion’s share of the paintings, allegedly purchasing 40 works — twice the amount previously reported in Vanity Fair. Litigation provoked by Knoedler’s sales of Rosales’s paintings allegedly precipitated the storied gallery’s closing in 2011.
Gallery 2 is identified as having been founded “in or about 1997 by a person who had previously been associated with Gallery 1,” and had engaged in 23 additional sales of Rosales’s works. Her wide-ranging fraud, which the complaint alleges dates back to the 1990s, centered around “never before exhibited and previously unknown painters” that Rosales claimed to be selling either on behalf of various anonymous sellers or a Spanish collector. The works included pieces purportedly by Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, among many others.
Proving that there is never a situation too grave for a good art-crime pun, U.S. Attorney Bharara’s release adds that Ms. Rosales “gave new meaning to the phrase ‘artful dodger.’”
In each of the three false tax return charges, Rosales faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000. In each of the five charges surrounding her failure to disclose her Spanish accounts, she faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
Selling counterfeit works isn’t wrong. We do have appraisers after all. Even with an appraiser (or multiple appraisers) you will always question if the Michelangelo drawing is real or not. The seller never knows for sure either, although they might strongly suspect. Any jerk that wants to buy a Basquiat that an appraiser says is “possibly a Basquiat” should go ahead. And that is exactly what happens all the time. It isn’t like these art sellers have a secret shop in the basement where they crank out fake artwork. These questionable artworks circulate the art market endlessly. They circulate so much over the years that no one can figure out their origins. Then someone takes the chance and buys it, worries that it is fake and sells it again. And on and on. No evil genius creating Van Gogh paintings in the basement.
Selling counterfeit isn’t wrong?? I assume this is some type of humor.. because paying your groceries with counterfeit bills is not only wrong it is a crime.
About art appraisals : there are many articles showing that an art appraisal is not an art authentication. There are millions of art appraisers but there is only ONE ( most of the time ) expert who is the sole recognized expert for an artist and who will confirm the authenticity. At wart.com you have good articles about this question , as well at http://vanweyenbergh.us/an_art_appraisal_is_not_an_art_authentication.htm
Gerard