Italian Police Have Arrested Suspected Forger Pasquele ‘Lino’ Frongia for Allegedly Faking Paintings by Franz Hals, El Greco, and Others

The forgery ring is believed to have been masterminded by French collector Giuliano Ruffini.
Sarah Cascone, June 28, 2023

Lino Frongia. Photo ©Lino Frongia.

Once again, Italian authorities have arrested Pasquale “Lino” Frongia, the artist suspected of forging a string of Old Master paintings that have appeared at high-profile museums and made millions at auctions by passing as the work of Frans Hals, Orazio Gentileschi, Diego Velázquez, El Greco, and Parmigianino, among others.

The 65-year-old painter was first apprehended in 2019, under a warrant from French judge Aude Burési, who is investigating the forgery ring believed to have been masterminded by Giuliano Ruffini, a French art collector. But the court in Bologna declined to extradite Frongia, citing inconsistent charges. After Burési issued a new European warrant, police arrested Frongia in Emilia, according to the Art Newspaper.

The long-running investigation into the fake Old Masters first made headlines in 2016, when authorities raided an exhibition featuring the collection of the prince of Lichtenstein on view at the Caumont Centre d’Art in Aix-en-Provence. They seized the centerpiece of the show, a stunning painting of Venus believed to be by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Soon, more paintings began to fall under suspicion, all linked to one name: Ruffini. Rumors had been circulating about his ties to forgeries for years—Italian police had even raided his home prior to the Cranach seizure—and now, one by one, the individual works are being flagged as fakes.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Venus (1531).
The painting is now believed to be a fake. ©Liechtenstein. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna.
In his defense, Ruffini has both denied the forensic analysis identifying the works as contemporary fakes, and insisted that he never claimed that any of the paintings were authentic Old Masters—the attributions to some of art history’s biggest names were first raised by the experts, not him.

Last November, Ruffini was reportedly on the run; police arrested him the following month and extradited him to France. He is currently under house arrest, facing charges of gang fraud, forgery, and money laundering.

The collector’s son, Mathieu Ruffini, is also suspected of being involved. Financial records show that the younger Ruffini made several payments to Frongia, including a $740,000 wire transfer in 2007. He was charged with money laundering and is out on bail.


https://news.artnet.com/art-world/italian-police-arrest-suspected-old-master-forger-2328903

Florida art scammer sentenced to over 2 years in federal prison

An undated photo provided by The United States Department of Justice of a fake Jean-Michel Basquiat work sold by Daniel Elie Bouaziz for $12 million. The Florida art dealer who promised bargains on works he claimed were originals by master artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring and Henri Matisse has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for laundering money made running a counterfeit scheme, federal officials said. (The United States Department of Justice via The New York Times) by Livia Albeck-Ripka

NEW YORK, NY.- A Florida art dealer who promised bargains on works he claimed were originals by master artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring and Henri Matisse has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for running a counterfeit scheme, federal officials said. The man, Daniel Elie Bouaziz, 69, owned several art galleries in Palm Beach County, Florida, through which he operated the counterfeit scheme. He was sentenced on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Miami to 27 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine, court filings show.

Bouaziz pleaded guilty in February to one charge of money laundering on the condition that federal prosecutors drop 16 other counts, according to the documents. Neither Bouaziz nor his lawyer could immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday evening.

According to prosecutors, Bouaziz, a French and Israeli citizen born in Algeria, was in the United States on a B-2 visitor’s visa. They said the pieces he had represented as authentic works were cheap reproductions he had bought through online auctions. He was charged in June after an investigation that included the serving of search warrants at his galleries, a review of financial records and undercover purchases of what prosecutors had deemed to be fraudulent art.

According to the federal complaint, Bouaziz conducted his art dealing through three companies: Galerie Danieli, Danieli Fine Art and VIP Rentals LLC. The website for Danieli Fine Art advertises a collection from a wide range of notable artists, including Monet, Rodin, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Willem de Kooning. But counterfeit Andy Warhols were what sent Bouaziz to prison.

On Oct. 25, 2021, Bouaziz sold what he had claimed were “authentic, original Warhol pieces,” some of them “signed by the artist,” to an unwitting customer, federal prosecutors said. The customer gave Bouaziz a $200,000 down payment, which he then wired to other accounts. According to court documents, Bouaziz then took five artworks to the buyer’s house. Federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday evening, but in a sentencing memorandum, they noted that Bouaziz “knew some of the pieces he sold were not genuine.” In one instance, they added, he sold fraudulent art to an undercover agent for $25,0000.

Bouaziz, they added, had won over many in Palm Beach with his philanthropy, his luxury cars and invitations to lunch and art events. But his generosity, prosecutors said, belied a darker reality. “Bouaziz painted a picture of himself that he wanted others to see and believe,” they said.

A restitution hearing is scheduled for Aug. 16. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

https://artdaily.cc/news/157920/Florida-art-scammer-sentenced-to-over-2-years-in-federal-prison