International Art Dealer Sentenced
According to this article, international art dealer Michael Zabrin has been selling forged works by artists like Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. Zabrin was a “member of a ring that earned millions of dollars selling phony art online through tony galleries in Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona, and Chicago” for more than two decades.
The gallerist was sentenced to nine years in prison. In 1992, he pleaded guilty to selling more than $800,000 in counterfeit art, for which he served a prison sentence, so this will be his second time in jail for similar charges.
Two of his associates, James Kennedy and Leon Amiel Jr. have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentences in the next month. John Donnelly, a postal inspector in Chicago commented “people will be dealing with the ones that are out there for many years to come.”
This case provides another reason to properly investigate provenance when purchasing a work of art, as often discussed in this blog.
(This entry was created with the assistance of Nicole Dornbusch.)
