A Miami artwork seller was indicted on fees that he bought fraudulent Andy Warhols to collectors and supplied them with faux invoices and cast authentication paperwork to make them seem respectable.
The indictment accuses the seller, Leslie Roberts of Miami Tremendous Artwork Gallery, of going to elaborate lengths to persuade patrons that the works have been respectable Warhols, together with by utilizing faux stamps and fraudulent identification numbers.
“To make the fraudulent artwork look like genuine items created by Andy Warhol, Leslie Howard Roberts utilized cast authentication paperwork that have been purportedly supplied by the Andy Warhol Artwork Authentication Board, Inc.,” the indictment learn. (The board ceased operations over a decade in the past.)
Two different defendants have been additionally charged with participating in Mr. Roberts’s scheme by posing as staff of a New York public sale home “to fraudulently authenticate art work with a purpose to conceal that the art work was not created by Andy Warhol.”
Mr. Roberts, who was arrested on wire fraud and cash laundering fees on Wednesday and launched on bond, didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
