Thief, Jeffrey Wood, Sentenced to Nearly Two Years

Image of Jeffrey Wood entering court

A Canadian man, Jeffrey Wood, has been sentenced to nearly two years in jail for stealing the iconic "The Roaring Lion" portrait of Sir Winston Churchill - original 1941 photo, shot by Yousuf Karsh.

Jeffrey has admitted to taking the image from Ottawa’s Château Laurier hotel between late 2021 and early 2022.

He also pleaded guilty to forgery!

The artwork was recovered in 2024 in Italy from an unsuspecting buyer.

Wood claimed he stole "The Roaring Lion" to help his brother, who was struggling with mental health issues. It was later discoveded missing by a hotel staffer in August 2022 after noticing the original had been swapped with a fake.

Though a first-time offender, Wood received "two years less a day," meaning he will serve time in a provincial facility.

The Château Laurier Hotel will undoubtedly enhance security by adding extra hooks when it welcomes back "The Roaring Lion."

-J.Larson

David John Voss sentenced for 5 years for the major art fraud case exploiting the famous Canadian Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau

David John Voss, 52, has been sentenced to five years in prison following his guilty plea to charges of forgery and uttering forged documents. The case, which is being described as Canada's largest art fraud investigation, involved a vast scheme to create and sell counterfeit artworks falsely attributed to the late Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau.

The sentencing took place on Thursday, with Superior Court Justice Bonnie Warkentin emphasizing the profound damage inflicted on Morrisseau's legacy. The judge noted that the fraudulent activities not only aimed for economic gain but also irrevocably tarnished Morrisseau's cultural and spiritual contributions.

Image of Norval Morrisseau

Norval Morrisseau, an influential figure in Canadian art, was born in 1932 and hailed from the Ojibway Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation in northwestern Ontario. He is renowned for founding the Woodlands School of Art, a movement known for its vibrant and spiritual depictions of Indigenous life. Morrisseau's distinctive style features bold colors and intricate symbols rooted in Anishinaabe traditions and mythology. His work earned significant acclaim, with exhibitions held at major galleries across Canada, including Rideau Hall in Ottawa, and his pieces are celebrated for their deep cultural significance.

Morrisseau passed away in 2007 at the age of 75. His contributions to art and Indigenous culture have been recognized widely, cementing his status as one of Canada’s most revered artists. According to court proceedings, Voss orchestrated an elaborate fraud ring from 1996 to 2019. The operation involved an assembly-line process where Voss and his associates created thousands of fake Morrisseau paintings. Painters followed a 'paint by numbers' system to replicate the artist's style.

This evidence photo released by the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada shows a forgery of artwork by legendary Canadian Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau. Photo by HANDOUT / Ontario Provincial Police /AFP via Getty Images

In March 2023, eight individuals were charged in connection with the fraud ring. Gary Lamont, considered the ringleader, was sentenced to five years in prison in December 2023. Other defendants include Diane Marie Champagne, Linda Joy Tkachyk, and Benjamin Paul Morrisseau from Thunder Bay, as well as Jeffrey Gordon Cowan, James White, and David P. Bremner from other locations. Charges against Champagne were withdrawn during Thursday’s proceedings.

A piece of Indigenous artwork on a table. One of more than 1,000 paintings seized by Ontario Provincial Police in connection with an art fraud investigation involving fake paintings attributed to Norval Morrisseau. (Ontario Provincial Police)

The fraud's impact on Morrisseau's estate has been severe, with Cory Dingle, the executive director, revealing that the estate faces estimated losses of at least $100 million. Dingle called for restitution and proposed legal reforms to prevent future occurrences. He also urged for continued assistance from those involved in identifying the fake artworks.

While the Crown did not pursue restitution due to the complexities involved, Dingle emphasized the need for changes to Canadian law to better address and remedy such frauds. This case highlights the broader implications of art fraud on cultural heritage and the challenges faced in combating such crimes.

- J.Larson

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

Spanish Police Have Seized Five Fake Goya and Velázquez Paintings Supposedly Worth a Collective $84 Million The works will go on view in an exhibition of seized forgeries curated in conjunction with Spanish police.

Sarah Cascone, April 14, 2023

Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Mariana of Austria (1652–1653), detail. Collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid. A recently seized forgery.

Spanish police have seized five Old Master forgeries that were being sold for a collective €76 million ($84 million). Four of the works were being marketed as the work of Francisco Goya, and the fifth as a Diego Velázquez. Investigators got wind of the paintings earlier this year, when the sellers were offering them to a number of art dealers, the London Times reported.

Police from the Patrimonio Histórico division confiscated the works on two separate raids in the coastal city of Valencia—the faux Velázquez on February 8, and the rest some weeks later. Authorities are investigating four suspects, who have been interviewed, but not arrested, CNN reported. The sellers had also allegedly produced fake provenance documents in the hopes of fooling potential collectors into believing these workers were the genuine article.

“The most important thing about this crime is that it devalues the work of our creative people, in this case, great painters in our history,” Gabriela Bravo, head of the regional government’s justice department, said in a statement, noting that art forgery is the fourth-most lucrative type of crime in Spain, after drugs, weapons, and prostitution.

Manuela Mena, a Goya specialist, and David Gimilio, an art technician at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia, have both confirmed that the works were forgeries—but it doesn’t seem like it was that difficult to tell. The priciest of the five works, at €50 million ($55 million) was a copy of Velazquez’s Portrait of Mariana of Austria, the composition cropped to show only her face. The full-length original was painted for the Spanish Royal Family, and is famously in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Two of the ersatz Goyas were also copies of works at the Prado, but by the 18th-century German artist Anton Rafael Mengs. Each priced at €7 million ($7.7 million), the works were based on details from Portrait of Charles IV and Portrait of María Luisa de Parma, Princess of Asturias.

The €8 million Blessing of Santa Rosa de Lima appears to be done in the style 17th-century Italian painters Carlo Maratta or Pietro Antonio de Pietri. The final forgery, titled Allegory of the Pillar of Zaragoza, “was a work of very low quality and not even done by a professional painter,” according to authorities. It had an asking price of €4 million ($4.4 million).

All the forgeries are believed to have originated with the same owner, a Valencia collector who died in 2020. The Patrimonio Histórico police have partnered with the Museu Valencià de la Illustració i de la Modernitat on an exhibition of 112 counterfeit artworks it has seized in recent years.

A recently seized forgery, offered as Blessing of Santa Rosa de Lima by Francisco Goya. It appears to be done in the style 17th-century Italian painters Carlo Maratta or Pietro Antonio de Pietri. A recently seized forgery, offered as Blessing of Santa Rosa de Lima by Francisco Goya. It appears to be done in the style 17th-century Italian painters Carlo Maratta or Pietro Antonio de Pietri.

The newly identified fakes will soon join the display, according to Spanish news outlet Vozpópuli. Titled “False: The art of deception or art deception,” the exhibition opened late last month and runs through September 3. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/spanish-police-seize-goya-velazquez-forgeries-2285486