Friday, July 26, 2013

The curious case of Kandinsky: how Communist Russia enabled art forgers to make millions

Kandinsky_large

Wassily Kandinsky's Composition VII, 1913. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons


On the morning of May 12th, more than 100 police officers stormed a house in Wiesbaden, Germany, as part of an enormous raid that spanned three nations and several warehouses, businesses, and art galleries. Their target: two men accused of masterminding a multimillion-dollar art-forgery ring.


The arrested suspects, aged 41 and 67, have not been identified and are awaiting trial. But the nearly 1,000 fake paintings and documents discovered in May speak to the breadth of their alleged operation. German police say the men have sold more than 400 forged paintings attributed to Russian avant garde artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Alexej von...


Continue reading…






via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/26/4560152/communism-and-kandinsky-why-russian-art-is-so-easy-to-forge

No comments:

Post a Comment