New York art dealer admits US$80m fakes scam using Chinese painter

A Long Island dealer at the centre of an US$80 million art forgery scheme that duped dozens of experts and buyers has pleaded guilty in New York to charges of wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

What has fascinated the art world is that the scores of paintings and drawings successfully presented as newly discovered works by some of the 20th century's greatest artists were actually fakes produced by a single man: an elderly immigrant from China who painted out of his home and garage in Queens.

The dealer, Glafira Rosales, is the only person indicted in connection with the fraud. But she is co-operating with US federal prosecutors, who have said they expect further arrests.

Rosales, speaking in a halting, barely audible voice, acknowledged to Judge Katherine Failla in US District Court in Manhattan that she had promoted paintings as the work of Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell that "were, in fact, fakes created by an individual in Queens".

Investigators have said that 40 of the counterfeits were sold through Knoedler & Co., a venerable Upper East Side gallery that abruptly closed in November 2011 after being in business for more than 165 years. At least 23 other fakes were sold through a second Manhattan dealer, Julian Weissman, according to the indictment. Rosales earned US$33.2 million, while the galleries received more than US$47 million in total, according to a statement issued by the Manhattan US attorney, Preet Bharara.