Florida Gallery Charged for Selling Bootleg Warhols
With some dropping over $6 million USD on works that were allegedly forged.
Last week the FBI raided the Miami Fine Art Gallery in Florida for allegedly selling forged art including artworks they falsely authenticated as real paintings by the late Pop Art icon, Andy Warhol. The outpost is owned by the art dealer, Leslie Roberts, who has been charged in federal court for “conspiring to sell forged art,” as per Artnet. “The 62-year-old dealer used fraudulent invoices and authentication documents to sell the works, officials claim.”
Accompanying Roberts in charges is a 37-year old man named Carlos Miguel Rodriguez Melendez who was hit with charges for wire fraud that linked to the forged artwork . Both individuals were arrested, but as of now, are free on bail with a slated April 21 arraignment. If they’re found guilty, the pair face up to 20 years in federal prison.
The indictment stated that Roberts relayed the pieces as original paintings connected to the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts. Melendez seemingly claimed that he worked at an auction house in New York to convince the victims into thinking that the works were authentic.
“To make the fraudulent art appear to be authentic pieces created by Andy Warhol, Leslie Howard Roberts utilized forged authentication documents that were purportedly provided by the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc.,” as per the indictment.
The New York Times reported that one of the victims was a family of art collectors, Matthew, Judy and Richard Perlman with the family having filed a civil lawsuit against Roberts claiming that he enticed them to pay over $6 million USD for the bootleg Warhols. “The Perelman family acquired more than 250 works, and paid $325,000 USD for a collection of depictions of Mao Zedong, one of Warhol’s most popular subjects.
