A gallery owner in the US has been charged with flogging half a million dollars worth of fake paintings via eBay and online. The works included pictures supposedly produced by Degas, Avery and de Kooning. Sure hope the National Gallery of Australia and our other august institutions are not using eBay to spend their acquisitions budget.

“federal investigators had recovered 45 pieces of art, including paintings, drawings and pastels. Investigators have confirmed so far that 36 were counterfeits and expect the rest also will be fake”

“This is just a small part of what’s out there. It’s easy to believe we are talking hundreds of victims, nationally and internationally”

Apparently they’ve been getting away with it since 1999. Makes you wonder why it took so long for someone to notice.