Banksy art forgers nabbed

● Police in Spain have dismantled an art forgery ring suspected of selling artworks falsely attributed to British street artist Banksy, with some pieces fetching prices of €1,500 or higher.

The Catalonia regional police force Mossos d’Esquadra said this week it had raided a workshop in an apartment in the city of Zaragoza.

Here the forgers created the fake works before distributing them through auction rooms, antique shops or online platforms.

Investigators have seized nine works and recorded at least 25 sales to victims in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the US and Scotland, the Mossos added in a statement.

Four people are under investigation, charged with fraud and crimes against intellectual property. According to the police, “a couple of young followers of Banksy’s street art with economic problems” created Banksy-style works with stencils and ink stamps from the Zaragoza workshop, which they at first sold at prices no higher than €80.

But a distributor “with knowledge of the functioning of the graphic work market”, in collaboration with an “interested distribution entity”, made fake certificates attributing the works to the secretive Banksy.

His identity has never been revealed and he achieved notoriety when a work put on auction destroyed itself upon being bought.

The artworks were presented as being part of Banksy’s “Dismaland” project, a 2015 theme parkstyle installation in the British town of Westonsuper-Mare. But the company Pest Control, the only body that certifies Banksy’s oeuvre, found that both the artworks and certificates were false.

“The investigation remains open and further victims and new arrests are not ruled out,” the Mossos added.