Art Dealer Arrested for Trying to Sell a Fake Leonardo da Vinci for $1.4 Million

Officials in France and Spain have arrested an art dealer for attempting to sell an imitation Leonardo da Vinci painting. The man, who is in his 40s, had claimed the counterfeit artwork was worth nearly $1.5 million, according to a statement from Spanish police.

The recent arrest is the culmination of a two-year investigation. In 2022, the man tried to transport the painting from Spain to Italy, where he had likely planned to meet a buyer. However, French customs officers seized the artwork from the man’s vehicle at the Modane border.

What raised suspicion? As Far Out magazine’s Lucy Harbron writes, it “all came down to paperwork.”

Spanish law requires an export license for any work of art older than 100 years. The man had such a license, which claimed the painting—a portrait of the Italian military commander Gian Giacomo Trivulzio—was valued at €1.3 million ($1.4 million). Per the Independent’s Shahana Yasmin, Leonardo had supposedly painted it while working in Milan for Duke Ludovico Sforza between 1482 and 1499.

There was just one problem: While the permit was authentic, it had been expired for several months. That meant the man was transporting the painting illegally—in other words, smuggling.

Detenido un varón con un supuesto cuadro de Leonardo da Vinci con permiso de exportación caducado

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“An export license isn’t a guarantee of a work’s authenticity,” a spokesperson for the Spanish national police tells the Guardian’s Sam Jones. “In this case, the license was being used as a means of claiming the painting was original. Once it became apparent that the license had expired, the painting was confiscated and an investigation was opened. As soon as the investigation determined that this was an alleged case of smuggling, the arrest was made.”

After seizing the piece, French customs officials alerted the Spanish police, who traveled to the French border to collect the artwork. They then sent it to the Museo Nacional del Prado, Spain’s national art museum in Madrid, where experts conducted a careful analysis.

The museum’s specialists ultimately concluded that the painting was a copy made “with fraudulent intent.” It was nothing more than an imitation of Milanese portraits from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The artist was not Leonardo or any of his contemporaries.

Instead, the painting likely dates to the early 20th century. It’s not worthless, but its price tag should be far lower than $1.4 million; experts valued it at between $3,200 and $5,400. As Hypebeast’s Keith Estiler writes, “It’s hardly the treasure it pretended to be.”

Spanish police eventually arrested the art dealer in Madrid. Officials haven’t yet revealed the whereabouts of the fake Leonardo. But as Far Out magazine writes, at least it “hasn’t ended up in the hands of a buyer who would have been €1.3 million poorer with a forgery hanging on their wall.”

Margherita Bassi | READ MORE

Margherita Bassi is a freelance journalist and trilingual storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications including BBC Travel, Discover magazine, Live Science, Atlas Obscura and Hidden Compass.