Italian police have uncovered Europe's largest counterfeiting network and the sale of fake works of art by the biggest names in modern and contemporary art including Banksy, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.
Some 38 people have been placed under investigation in Italy, Spain, France and Belgium on suspicion of conspiracy to manage stolen goods, forgery and the illegal sale of works of art, the Carabinieri art team and the Pisa prosecutor's office said in a joint statement on Monday.
Pisa's chief prosecutor, Teresa Angela Camelio, said Banksy's archive experts who assisted in the investigation considered Monday's performance “the biggest act to protect Banksy's work.”
Pest Control, the office representing the artist, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On its website, it says fraud is common and urges people looking to buy any Banksy pieces to beware of “expensive lies.”
Other artists who are said to be fakes include 19th and 20th century art giants such as Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian.
Investigators said they seized more than 2,100 counterfeit pieces, with a market value of 200 million euros ($296 million Cdn) and found six workshops including two in Tuscany, one in Venice and others elsewhere in Europe.
They said their investigation began in 2023 when they seized about 200 fake pieces from the Pisa businessman's collection, including a copy of a painting by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.
That led them to factories sold by auction houses all over Italy, and connected them to a well-known group believed to be working under the authority of Banksy and Warhol.
To bolster their claims, the unnamed suspects staged two Banksy exhibitions with a catalog published in prestigious venues in Mestre near Venice and Cortona in Tuscany, investigators said.
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