Thanks to an attentive Milanese collector, the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Monza managed to trace back to a company that sold works by great 20th century artists on television, passing them off as authentic but which, in reality, were perfect reproductions.
The Monza military seized 51 reproductions of works by numerous artists including Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Joan Mirò and Massimo Campigli which were sold on television as authentic reproductions. Works that were purchased for around 4 thousand euros each. And while watching a well-known television programme, the Milanese collector turned to the police, raising doubts about the authenticity of the prints and paintings. The soldiers of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Monza then started investigations which led them to the Brescia company that was selling the fakes on TV.
The assessments carried out on the over 50 seized works then confirmed the doubts: those works were mere prints of little value and had not been created either as silk-screen prints or etchings, nor even by famous artists. “The current law for the protection of our immense cultural heritage provides for the punishment of imprisonment from one to five years and a fine of up to 10 thousand euros for anyone who markets, holds for the purpose of marketing, introduces for this purpose into the territory of the State or otherwise places in circulation, as authentic, counterfeit, altered or reproduced examples of works of painting, sculpture or graphics, objects of antiquity or objects of historical or archaeological interest”, specify the Corps.
To avoid falling into the traps of scammers, the police recommend purchasing with an invoice or receipt with a description of the work only after having verified the authenticity of the certificate with the artist or the archive, being wary of expertise provided by people who do not have title to do so, and of the “big deal”. In fact, over the course of over 50 years of activity, the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage has seized over one million and 300 thousand forgeries and has recovered more than 3 million cultural assets, of which almost 1,700,000 book/archival assets , over 978,000 archaeological finds, more than 170,000 art objects. For further advice and information on what to do in cases of purchasing goods of cultural interest, if an archaeological object is found or to send a request for verification, the Command has long made available and recently updated the TPCWEB website which can be reached at address https://tpcweb.carabinieri.it/SitoPubblico/home/informazioni/consigli.
