A provided image shows an artwork connected to a scheme of selling false Keith Haring paintings. According to a criminal complaint, employees at New York auction houses were approached about the art. A man was taken into custody and charged with wire fraud. Department of Justice via The New York Times.
NEW YORK
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- Angel Pereda, 49, of Mexico, was taken into custody in New York and charged with wire fraud after prosecutors accused him of trying to sell artworks that he falsely claimed had been created by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced on Friday. Prosecutors said that on at least one occasion, Pereda created and sent new fake provenances to an intermediary in New York claiming that a painting was by Basquiat, in the hopes that it could be sold for millions of dollars. Basquiats 1982 work Untitled sold for $110.5 million at auction in 2017. William F. Sweeney Jr., an assistant director at the FBI, said in a statement, Mr. Pereda conned art buyers, hoping his victims wouldnt see the difference between real art and a forgery. Pereda did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. ... More