Super-rich hire British forgers to copy their treasures

Wealthy international clients commissioning fake artworks and watches to fool burglars and muggers

THE rich and famous from all over the world are seeking out forgers in London to copy their most treasured possessions as a way of thwarting burglars.

Security experts have disclosed their wealthy clients are increasingly hanging counterfeit paintings in their homes and wearing “knock-off ” designer watches while keeping the genuine items safely under lock and key.

The trend follows a recent spate of violent thefts in west London, including a £26 million raid on Tamara Ecclestone’s Kensington home and a break-in at David and Victoria Beckham’s Holland Park house. Bryan Peele, a private wealth manager based in the United States, said his international clients were travelling to London to commission counterfeit high-end goods, including paying up to $10,000 (£7,800) for a replica watch.

“For the client, they ask: ‘Do I want to spend $10,000 on a copy and if I get robbed, I lose $10,000? Or when the real thing is stolen, do I want to lose $500,000?’,” said Mr Peele.

“It’s a no-brainer for the people walking around with half-a-million-dollar watches on their wrists.

“There’s a guy in London who uses different materials, but it looks very similar to the naked eye and people think they are the real deal.”

The watchmaker, who operates anonymously, uses cheaper materials to produce timepieces that look identical to those made by Patek Philippe, Cartier, Rolex and Franck Muller. Mr Peele has also had a £49 million Mark Rothko painting copied for a client along with works by Salvador Dali. “There are whole networks of people who copy the paintings well and lots of them are in the UK,” he said. “It seems like lots of the deals come back to London.”

Alex Bomberg, of Intelligent Protection International, said some of his clients had hung decoy art pieces on the walls of their family homes following recent violent robberies.

“They have stored all their paintings away and what they have on their walls are copies, but you would never know. So they are not putting their main asset at risk,” he said.

“The only risk is that someone knowing these are fakes are on the wall, breaking in and stealing other bits.”

Earlier this month Amir Khan, the boxer, was robbed of his £72,000 Franck Muller watch at gunpoint while out with his wife in Leyton, east London. The 35-year-old was targeted hours after he was pictured by a member of the public on Instagram shopping in Oxford Street while wearing the diamond-encrusted watch.

Mr Bomberg said that social media posts showing off expensive items and interior shots of opulent homes were giving thieves and burglars ideas.

“The main issue begins as soon as someone knows the asset exists,” he said. So if you are posting pics of yourself with your £70,000 watch on social media, or your painting in the background, you are asking for trouble.

“It’s very bad practice. The moment you do something like that you open yourself up massively to being robbed because people can see what you have in your home. Especially these videos that give you a tour of the house and you can see where certain high value objects are.”

Mr Peele said the trend to commission fakes had become “extremely popular” as the world emerges from the pandemic.

“What I have noticed since we have started to emerge from the lockdown is that more people are spending more money on personal security.

“People are coming out of the pandemic to rising crime rates in big cities and they want to protect their family and the things that they have earned for themselves and value,” he said.