New York Post
By BRUCE GOLDING
A Manhattan art dealer was busted in Florida yesterday for peddling bogus paintings he claimed were the works of famed artists including Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder and Marc Chagall, authorities said.
Giuseppe Concepcion - a dealer at the Park Avenue Armory Art Show who is based in Miami - allegedly employed forgers to copy the originals and then peddled the fakes to unsuspecting customers between 2005 and 2007, according to court papers.
In one case, Concepcion, who is charged with wire fraud, allegedly pawned a rip-off of a 1969 Calder oil "Red Swirl" to a victim from Greenwich, Conn., for $120,000. That was one of 15 forged works the victim bought from Concepcion, according to the complaint.
Defense lawyer Mark Heller said the art works passed through the hands of multiple dealers, and that the feds were using his client as a "scapegoat."
MORE INFORMATION:
New York Daily News
BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
A New York art gallery owner was nabbed Friday for commissioning dozens of knockoffs of Matisse, Calder and others that he passed off as the real thing.Giuseppe Concepcion was arrested in Florida on charges of trafficking in phony artwork and scheming to dupe clients, Manhattan federal prosecutors say.
Concepcion owns the Proarte galleries in New York and Miami.
The feds say Concepcion purchased authentic works of art by Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder, Tom Wesselman and then commissioned forgeries he sold to victims, complete with bogus documents verifying their authenticity.
In August 2005, Concepcion sold a 1969 oil painting by Calder to a Greenwich, Conn., man who gave Concepcion his 2004 Bentley as partial payment for the $180,000 price tag, FBI Special Agent James Wynne said in legal papers filed yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court.
Experts at the Calder Foundation determined that painting, and 14 others the Connecticut man bought, were fakes, Wynne said.
In November 2006, Concepcion sold a $125,000 knockoff Chagall watercolor titled "Fleurs Rouges Et Bleues," the feds say. The New York-based Comite Chagall determined the painting and its certificate of authenticity were fakes.
tzambito@nydailynews.com
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