Another Cache of Forged Master Paintings Found, This Time Near Lisbon

An Eclectic Art Fraud in Portugal

Some 130 paintings, together with forged certificates attesting to their authenticity, were seized last month

By DALYA ALBERGE

A recent raid in Portugal has uncovered a large hoard of fake pictures, with police seizing works that were claimed to have been painted by Modigliani, Matisse and Monet among other noted artists.

Some 130 paintings, together with forged certificates attesting to their authenticity, were seized by officers last month. Police suspect that the forgers have been selling the fakes for some years, but police say they have yet to discover whether the forgers were collaborating with any dealers. Previous forgers have had middle-men involved.

The Portuguese Judiciary Police have established a special investigation called "Caverna do Tesouro," or Treasure Cave, to deal with the case, because of the range of faked artists and the specialist knowledge required.

João Oliveira, the criminal investigation coordinator running the probe, said in an interview: "Picasso, Miro, Munch, Toulouse-Lautrec... it's amazing. This is the biggest [hoard of fakes] in Portugal and one of the most important in Europe."

Other 20th-century masters in the hoard include Chagall and Kandinsky. Such was the forgers' confidence that Old Masters like Leonardo da Vinci, whose work needs knowledge of how to artificially age pictures as well as artistic skill, are among the fakes.

Mr. Oliveira described some of the forgeries as "very good," showing a "superior technique."

The fakes could have been sold to unsuspecting buyers for "upwards of €15 million" total, according to one London dealer.

The hoard was found at a house described by police as "small but expensive" in Cascais, a fashionable resort near Lisbon.

A Norwegian married couple is suspected of being involved in the forgery. But, in accordance with Portuguese law, their names are still withheld. Police said the woman, in her 40s, was initially arrested, but has been released pending further investigation. Her husband is still being sought. The woman must report regularly to the police and cannot leave the country.

The forgeries consist mostly of paintings in the style of particular artists rather than direct copies of known works, police said. A forged Kandinsky is an exception, a copy of the painter's Yellow-Red-Blue, a 1925 abstract in the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Portuguese art experts who have seen the forgeries have told police that many are extremely impressive, and indeed beautifully produced.However, other expert views on the quality of the forgeries, based on photographs, were divided. They said that, while leading experts would not be fooled, a secondary market of enthusiasts could have been duped.

On being shown a photograph of a "Leonardo," Jacques Franck, an expert advising the Louvre, said: "It's a beautiful painting. The pose of the head might derive from Leonardo's unfinished drawing of Christ's head... in the Accademia in Venice... It's really a ... handsome execution, but the style...is 18th—century not 16th-century."

Julian Spalding, former director of the Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, said: "There is something odd about this hoard.... Forgers most often specialize in one area of art... This is an odd jumble of very different art. It might be the work of more than one forger. I doubt if any would have fooled a specialist. They are potpourries of familiar elements in an artist's work, not attempts to create an original, unknown conception... much more difficult."

Looking at photographs, John Myatt, a British artist who was sentenced to a year in prison in 1999 as a forger of Monet, Matisse and Giacometti, described a Portuguese Modigliani as "quite convincing"—"I'd have gone for that," he said. He also thought the Botero looked "quite credible."

But he dismissed a Chagall as missing "the essence" of the artist—"he wasn't that untidy," he said—and a Leonardo as a "pastiche of an 18th century painting". He observed that it was foolhardy to forge Leonardo: "There has been an accepted body of his work with provenance and exhibition history over 400 years. To come along with a new Leonardo is just stupid... A new Kandinsky at least makes some sense."



At top left, the Chagall wedding scene fake, with a real Chagall painting below it. At top right, a fake reclining nude by Botero; at bottom right, a real Botero.