Fraudster magnate’s art treasures on sale

AN AUCTION of 55 masterpieces that once belonged to the fraudster founder of a bankrupted Italian food conglomerate began yesterday in Milan.

Calisto Tanzi hid his art collection, including works by Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Renoir and Chagall, before he was jailed for 18 years over the 2003 collapse of Parmalat – Europe’s biggest bankruptcy ever.

After years of detective work, prosecutors recovered the paintings and they are to be auctioned to pay off creditors.

“I have never seen such a collection of works of this importance go to auction in Italy,” said Pietro De Bernardi, of auction house Pandolfini Casa d’aste.

His company values the collection at up to £7 million, but some observers suggest it could make twice that.

A Picasso still life and Monet’s Falaise du Petit Ailly à Varengeville are expected to fetch more than £1 million each, while the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam reportedly wants to buy the artist’s 1887 painting Still Life With Apples with a base price of £242,000.

Bids for a watercolour by Van Gogh titled Pollard Willow start at £104,000.

Locals are simply calling the collection “The Tanzi Treasure”.

In 2001, Tanzi, now 80, made Forbes’ list of Italian billionaires, but in 2003 Parmalat collapsed in a massive fraud scandal, leaving a £13 billion hole in its accounts.

Tanzi was convicted of fraud and criminal conspiracy in 2008 and 2010.

Tipped off about a potential sale of the art to a Russian billionaire, prosecutors authorised raids and found art concealed in the houses of friends and family.

A Monet and a Van Gogh had been hidden in a Parma cellar, a Kandinsky and a Chagall stored in a garage and attic, and other masterpieces in Switzerland.

Italian detectives eventually recovered more than 100 artworks, many of which were displayed throughout Italy before yesterday’s auction in Milan.