A Florida art dealer was charged in a federal court for participating in a conspiracy to sell forged art using fake and fraudulent invoices and authentications.
According to allegations in the indictment, the dealers sold art from a Miami Fine Art Gallery located in Coconut Grove. They fraudulently represented the art as original pieces created by renowned artist Andy Warhol. Further, they falsely claimed to victims that he acquired the artwork directly from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and provided fake and fraudulent invoices to the victim. They falsely represented that he was an employee of a New York-based auction company in order to fraudulently authenticate the artwork in to conceal that the artwork was fake.
The Indictment also alleges that they engaged in money laundering, transferring wire fraud proceeds from his Miami Fine Art Gallery bank account to a personal bank account. According to the Indictment, they made transactions in the amounts of $150,000, $40,000 and $50,000.
On April 9, 2025, both were arrested by law enforcement and made an initial appearance in federal court (Case No. 25-cr-20142).
If convicted of the wire fraud conspiracy, the defendants face up to 20 years in federal prison. If convicted of money laundering, one faces up to 10 years in federal prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Main Image: Andy Warhol, Tomato 1968. This image is just an illustration
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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