Florida Art Dealer Arrested For $2 Million Art Scam

Is the signature on your Monet a little too legible? It could be a fake; word is they're going around.

A former art dealer was arrested in South Florida last Thursday, and was accused of selling forgeries to a Los Angeles art collector. The dealer, Matthew Taylor, allegedly claimed that the pieces were the work of Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. The LA art collector, who has not yet been identified, supposedly bought over 100 pieces of fake art from Taylor, paying him approximately $2 million.

Taylor gained an expertise in art while owning a gallery in San Diego, and is accused of using this knowledge to alter works of art by obscure artists in order to pass them off as masterpieces. According to authorities, he "allegedly covered up the signatures and forged the names of the more-famous and more-valuable artists." Taylor is also accused of applying fake stickers from museum collections such as the MOMA and the Guggenheim, a well as stealing a Lucien Frank and a Granville Redmond painting from Los Angeles galleries and selling them to other galleries, scoring $85,000 for the Redmond piece.

He is being charged for wire fraud, money laundering, interstate transportation of stolen property and possession of stolen property. Law enforcement was puzzled at how to approach the case; U.S. Attorney's Office's Thom Mrozek noted "we just don't see that many cases along these lines." So what is the going rate for 100 forgeries? Right now Taylor is facing up to 100 years in prison.

Comments

[bubbepenny]

06:22 PM on 09/17/2011

so show us some of the pics

[Al Schrader]

09:30 AM on 09/17/2011

I'm currently the best there is, but I sign my name only "Alfred". I purposely organized
the back half of my estate here in Florida as a citrus garden painting....Thompson's pink, tangelo, and lemon blossoming trees, mossy oaks, etc. You can take a lawn chair there and "be" in an actual living painting.....Alfred-

[lightninbob1]

07:40 AM on 09/17/2011

Caveat emptor!

[jayszip]

04:39 AM on 09/17/2011

There is an old saying.... If someone comes along and tries to sell you a diamond ring for ten cents, chances are you just bought a rock, not worth a dime...

[Gronkie]

12:18 AM on 09/17/2011

Monet, Van Gogh, Pollack, Rothko - 100 pieces for $2 million?

If it sounds to good to be true....

[Bones Rhodes]

10:20 PM on 09/16/2011

How can someone with $2 million be dumb enough to think they could buy 100 pieces of art of that caliber for that amount of money ?

[hackitoff]

09:47 PM on 09/16/2011

The art collector needs to go to the library to read up on the art he's buying. (why not just do it on the internet, making him go to the library is his punishment for being so gulible) . I wonder if he wants to buy a bridge in Chicago that I can sell him? I'll even give him a quit claim deed.

[Christine Lugo]

10:19 PM on 09/16/2011

I was just thinking the same thing...only an idiot would think they would get 100 pieces of these wonderful artists for $2 million...yes, send him to the library and make them use the Dewey Decimal System to find the books!!!

[artist-53]

10:10 AM on 09/18/2011

The person that bought the forgeries may indeed might not have thought they were forgeries, but knew it was a great price for the works .It would seem that the buyer was willing to be as shady as the seller.Just my opinion, which doesn't mean squat:-)

[pineway259]

07:40 PM on 09/16/2011

Rich people got scammed, sounds like an Obama trick to tax the rich.

[lentadere]

07:38 PM on 09/16/2011

I guess not too many people are interested in art because they can't blame Obama, or the Tea Party, or the Republicans. Now, to me this is an interesting article.

[paul4v44]

06:07 PM on 09/16/2011

So much greed-everywhere....YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU!