Friday, March 21, 2008

"Proceed with caution and seek guidance"

Some art-buying advice from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (yes, that Patrick Fitzgerald), who this week announced a number of indictments for "two art-fraud schemes that reaped a combined $5 million." Bloomberg has the story here. Fitzgerald says "literally thousands of people in different countries and on different continents may come to learn that when they thought they bought an original work signed by Picasso or DalĂ­ or Chagall, they in fact bought a fake." Some of the prints at issue were sold on eBay, and others were sold through two art dealers in Northbrook, Illinois.