If you thought corruption was rife in, say, politics, or the construction industry, take a look at what’s been going on in the art world. These reports are from news sources during the past month alone.

March 16, 2016
MILAN (AP) — 13 Arrested in Verona Art Heist, Paintings Still Missing. Wiretapped phone calls and video surveillance were key to the arrest of 13 suspects in Italy and Moldova for the brazen armed robbery of 17 paintings, including works by Tintoretto, Rubens and Mantegna, from Verona's main art museum in November, authorities said Wednesday. One of the suspects was identified as the guard on duty when three armed robbers entered the Castelvecchio Museum at closing time, just before the alarm system was activated. Eight of the suspects, including the guard's twin brother and Moldovan wife, were arrested in Italy, while the rest were arrested in Moldova. Authorities are still working on recovering the paintings, valued at 15 million euros ($16.5 million). Investigators believe they are hidden in Moldova and hope to find them still together. "The offense to the city of Verona has been partially repaired. It will be totally repaired when we can bring home our treasures," investigator Renato Cortese told a news conference.

“Cols Rouges,” or "red collars," security guards/art handlers at Hotel Drouot, Paris, 2010. Photo: H. de Oliveira / Expansion-REA

March 14, 2016
PARIS (AP) — Four Paris auctioneers and dozens of auction workers have gone on trial accused of a vast scheme to steal thousands of pieces of artwork and other valuable items worth millions of euros over several years. The works included a Courbet painting, Chagall and Matisse lithographs, and a 2.08-carat diamond. Workers tasked with transporting the objects allegedly stole them and then later sold some of them with the complicity of auctioneers. Nearly all of the 50 defendants involved in the case at the Hotel Drouot, the biggest, oldest and most famous auction house in France, appeared in a Paris court Monday charged with gang-related theft, conspiracy to commit a crime or handling stolen goods. They face up to seven years in prison and 175,000 euros ($195,000) in fines each if convicted. The art handlers are known in the industry as “red collars," after the upright crimson collars on their impeccable black jackets, reports L'Echo. The staffers reportedly turned such a profit on the sales that they were able to buy Porsches and BMWs; one of them is accused of purchasing a bar.

March 9, 2016
Bloomberg Business—New York. Bit by bit, Leonardo’s lost masterpiece revealed itself: the Mona Lisa mouth, the subtle brushwork, the gossamer glaze.Now, several years after the world learned that a painting long believed to be a copy was in fact the work of Leonardo da Vinci, the $127.5 million masterpiece, “SalvatorMundi,” has landed in the middle of one of the most astonishing art scandals in decades.What began in the rarefied realms of Monaco and Geneva, with allegations of stolen Picassos and marked-up Modiglianis, has now jumped the Atlantic and drawn the attention of the U.S. Justice Department. Federal prosecutors, following the lead of European authorities, have opened an inquiry into one of the art world’s consummate insiders, Yves Bouvier -- including his dealings with the rediscovered Leonardo, according to people familiar with the matter. The move marks the first time that federal authorities have trained their sights on a scandal that has shaken Europe’s notoriously private ecosystem of art dealers, middlemen and collectors. While still in its infancy, the U.S. probe also underscores prosecutors’ general concerns about the opacity of the market in art -- which, like high-end real estate, can serve as a conduit for money laundering. [more]

Pablo Picasso, Bust of a Woman, installation at MoMA, September 2015; photo: Peggy Roalf

March 14, 2016 
Various sources—The furore sparked by the closely-watched legal feud over Pablo Picasso’s Bust of a Woman continues. [On February 5, 2016], Maya Widmaier-Picasso, the daughter of the legendary artist, issued a statement via her lawyer, Thaddeus Stauber, dismissing allegations that she sold the 1931 plaster bust depicting her mother, Marie-Thérèse Walter, twice. In her statement, first reported by the  Wall Street Journal, Widmaier-Picasso argues she sold the sculpture to Larry Gagosian in May 2015. Gagosian paid $106 million for the plaster bust, a record price for any Picasso sculpture. The mega-dealer then sold it to Leon D. Black, the billionaire founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management and co-chairman of the board of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), where the sculpture was displayed as part of the exhibition “Picasso Sculpture" until the show closed Sunday. A trial is currently scheduled in Manhattan court, to take place on September 19. [More] 

March 13, 2016
NEW YORK/USICE — Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in conjunction with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office seized two stolen Indian statues Friday, believed to be from the 8th and 10th centuries A.D. The artifacts were recovered from Christie's auction house in New York City and are the result of an international investigation led by HSI and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, with assistance from the government of India and Interpol. The seizure comes just days before a planned March 15, 2016 auction of the items as part of the "Asia Week New York" festivities. Christie's had included the two artifacts in an auction entitled: "The Lahiri Collection: Indian and Himalayan Art, Ancient and Modern." According to the ongoing investigation, the Sandstone of Rishbhanata appears to have been sold by Oliver Forge to London–based Brandon Lynch Ltd between 2006 – 2007. The Panel of Revanta, according to images provided by the source dealer, appeared to have contained an "orphan fragment," a piece perfectly broken off to be sold by the smugglers after the sale of the main part of the sculpture. [More]

John Elderfield (former Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art) testifying about seeing the a Diebenkorn at the Knoedler gallery in 1994 and telling Ann Freedman it was dubious. Courtroom sketch © Elizabeth Williams.

February 24, 2016

From The Center for Art Law—On February 10, 2016, the highly watched case, De Sole v. Knoedler Gallery, LLC, settled out of court. The events leading to the settlement date back either to 2004 when Eleanore and Domenico De Sole purchased a forged painting attributed to Mark Rothko from Knoedler Gallery (the “Gallery”), or to 1990s when Glafira Rosales, a Long Island-based art dealer walked into the Knoedler Gallery with a story that she knew a son of a collector who had some paintings he wanted to sell. At the time, Ann Freedman was the long-standing President of Knoedler Gallery; she has been quoted as “believing in” Rosales’ paintings. Freedman and Knoedler proceeded to sell dozens of paintings either consigned by or sold by Rosales. After the story broke that these works were fake and the gallery closed, the De Soles and other buyers sought restitution for the fakes they purchased for millions of dollars. Additionally, the U.S. Attorney began a criminal investigation to punish the wrongdoers. One particular claim that could be raised in both the civil and criminal contexts is fraud…. The civil proceedings relating to the Gallery forgery scandal have proven very momentous and dynamic. It begs the question whether there will be similar litigation in the criminal realm against individuals like Rosales. We must wait and see!