Posted on December 23, 2009 by Daniel Schnapp

Did the Italian Government Get Duped by a Fake Michelangelo?

A wooden carving of Jesus on the cross by Michelangelo, which was presented to Pope Benedict XVI, exhibited at the Italian parliament, seen by thousands, and even  may have landed in the National Gallery in Washington as a way of honoring President Barack Obama, may be a fake.

The allegedly fraudulent work, which was purchase for about 3 million pounds from an art dealer in Turin, was presented by the dealer as an authentic Michelangelo.  However, according to this article in  The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/
italy/6833354/Michelangelo-figure-may-be-a-fake.html, multiple experts are not fooled.

Perhaps the strongest statement the Telegraph article was from Tomaso Montanari, an art history professor at Naples University, who said it was "clearly not" a Michelangelo.

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Posted on December 22, 2009 by Daniel Schnapp

What Art Dealer Michael Levy and Al Capone Have in Common: Tax Fraud

A well-known art dealer, Michael Levy, has been sentenced to three years in prison for his apparent role in a tax fraud.

Apparently Levy, in an effort to avoid paying about $900,000 in taxes, diverted more than $3 million in gross gallery receipts between 2003 and 2007 from his business accounts.  According to the IRS, Levy converted more than 80 customer checks into cash over the four-year period and kept the proceeds concealed. Levy was thus able to conceal his fraud from his tax preparer.

More on the case can be found here: http://www.gazettes.com/articles/2009/12/16
/community_news/doc4b294fd152bbf660020448.txt
 

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Posted on December 20, 2009 by Daniel Schnapp

Art Concealed By Parmalat Founder Located

Readers may recall Europe’s largest bankruptcy, the collapse of Parmalat, back in 2003.  The company fell apart when it was about $20 billion in the red.

Now, Parmalat’s founder, Calisto Tanzi, who was sentenced to prison for 10 years in 2008 for fraud, is charged to have hidden away art works including a drawing of a ballerina by Degas, a tree trunk by Van Gogh, a Picasso still life, and a self-portrait by Antonio Ligabue.  European authorities believe that the works were about to be sold although the reasons for the sale were unclear.

More about the possible fraud can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8397144.stm

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