The forger of the fake Leonardo da Vinci, arrested at the French border in 2022, has been arrested in Madrid, Spanish police announced in a tweet on Tuesday, August 13. The man was released but is being investigated for smuggling.
Seized by the police, the painting presented as being by Leonardo da Vinci has been in the Prado Museum in Madrid since July 2022, where it is being analyzed by experts. The final report of the investigation on August 14 revealed that it was a copy. It is a “imitation of Milanese portrait models from the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century”a picture painted with – already – fraudulent intentions, indicates the Spanish media 3catThe copy of a portrait of Gian Trivulzio, an Italian aristocrat and military man, is believed to have been made in the early 20th century.
Arrested in 2022 at the border of Modane (Savoie), heading towards Italy, the man was transporting the painting in his car. He intended to sell the painting for 1.3 million euros in Milan using an authentic but expired export permit. French customs officers then alerted the Spanish police, who went to the border to recover the painting. Faced with suspicions of fraud, Spain considered that it was an illegal export and launched an expert appraisal of the painting.
