Three men have been arrested and accused of creating and selling $400,000 in fake Damien Hirst spot prints. They were actually created with a stamp, printer, and other tools, prosecutors said.
The Manhattan district attorney's office said Vincent Lopreto, 52 years old of New Orleans; Marco Saverino, 34 of Cottonwood, Ariz.; and Paul Motta, 50 of Sedona, Ariz., had stolen $400,000 from dozens of buyers by selling counterfeit art. He added that this case of fraud "went beyond plain imitation" as the defendants had deceived "a multitude of buyers into purchasing counterfeit art that was falsely passed off as genuine".
Lopreto allegedly ripped off four victims in NY and countless others in Germany, South Africa, England Italy Macedonia, Canada and South Korea, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
He then allegedly partnered with Saverino and Motta to use online sites, including eBay, to advertise the fake Hirst prints as being limited edition pieces that Hirst had signed - works that were worth thousands of dollars a piece.
Lopreto was apprehended in New Orleans last Wednesday, according to The Times-Picayune.
Rafael Nadal Wins Historic 10th French Open Title
Telling Words: "I played at the maximum of my power, my strength, and my capability, but Rafa was the best player". Nadal held serve fine, and then he scored the first break of the match with a dominant forehand return game.
"Vincent Lopreto is charged with resuming the same scheme to knock off Damien Hirst artworks that sent him to prison just 15 days after being released", Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, said in a statement.
In total, the defendants stole approximately $400,000 from dozens of buyers around the world, including victims in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Italy, Macedonia, South Africa, Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea. Four fraudulent sales were made to Manhattan residents and two more sales were made to an undercover investigator posing as a buyer.
Lopreto pleaded guilty in January 2014 to selling forged Hirst prints online. The works have been sold to dozens of art collectors around the world.
Hirst is one of Britain's wealthiest persons and regularly appears on the Times' Rich List., In 2008 his work hit the auction block at Sotheby's he sold 223 new works for 111 million pounds ($141 million at current exchange rates). In May 2014, the defendant was sentenced to 2-to-4 years in state prison.
Manhattan prosecutors described Monday's charges as a continuation of the scheme that involved Bell, which itself followed an earlier art fraud conviction that earned Lopreto a five-year prison sentence.
Comments