Art workshop forging famous paintings on large-scale busted by Italian police

Italian police have confiscated dozens of forged artworks falsely attributed to renowned artists like Picasso and Rembrandt in what officials described as a “clandestine painting laboratory.”

The investigation began when authorities started tracking fraudulent artworks being sold online, ArtNews reported citing the corresponding police press release.

In collaboration with the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and coordinated with the Rome prosecutor’s office, police discovered a total of 71 counterfeit paintings in late February, stating that the suspect had been selling “hundreds of works of dubious authenticity” through platforms such as eBay and Catawiki.

Among the seized pieces were forged paintings attributed to Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, along with works imitating the styles of Mario Puccini, Giacomo Balla, and Afro Basaldella, among other notable artists.

Police traced the workshop responsible for producing the fakes to a house in a northern suburb of Rome, where an entire room had been dedicated to counterfeiting paintings.

Inside, authorities found art supplies, falsified artist signatures, fake certificates of authenticity, stamps from defunct galleries and collections, and various art catalogues used to aid in the forgery process.

This bust follows another major forgery case uncovered by Italian police late last year, which involved 38 suspects and an estimated $210 million in fraudulent art sales, including two Banksy exhibitions held in Italy with an accompanying catalogue.

By Nazrin Sadigova