EBN- Italian police announced on Monday the dismantling of a European counterfeiting network accused of producing and distributing exact copies of works by 30 artists, including Pablo Picasso , Joan Miró, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and Banksy .
The Pisa prosecutor’s office announced on Monday that 38 individuals from Italy, Spain, France and Belgium are under investigation for handling stolen goods, counterfeiting artworks and selling them illegally.
The investigation was dubbed Operation Cariatide after the fake Modigliani caryatid that was seized from the group.
The European case began in March 2023, when Italy’s art police seized 200 modern artworks from a Pisa businessman. The investigation led to the seizure of some 2,100 works, worth an estimated €200 million ($213 million).
Investigators first became suspicious when the artworks were being sold at low prices on online auction sites. This led to the discovery of six forgery workshops, three in Italy and others in several locations in Europe, containing more than 1,000 fake works, 450 fake certificates and 50 fake stamps.
Banksy’s most forged works
“Operation Caryatid has allowed us to shed light on a transnational system of counterfeiters linked to auction houses, and to block works that could have been put on the market at prices close to those of the originals,” said Teresa Angela Camilo, chief prosecutor in Pisa, referring to the places that served as key final links in the counterfeiters’ supply chain.
The most forged works are by the anonymous artist Banksy, and the gang has held two exhibitions of fake Banksy works, one in Mestre in Veneto, and the other in Cortona in Tuscany.
Stefano Antonelli, a Banksy expert who was present at the press conference, said: “The arrest of the gang is the greatest protection for Banksy’s work.”
He noted that “many of the fake products were stamped ‘Dismaland’,” referring to the theme park Banksy created in an English seaside resort in 2015.
Some of the spray-painted cardboard works claim to be from the 1990s, but are priced well below market value,” he said.
“In other cases, forgers have become creative, by depicting entirely new works, such as the famous flower thrower mural on a road sign,” he added. “Banksy has long been dogged by forgery, and the artist has an official documentation team, the Anti-Forgery Bureau.”
