Glafira Rosales

Dealer Is Arraigned on Charges Related to Sale of Disputed Masterpieces

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

An art dealer from Long Island pleaded not guilty Friday in Manhattan to charges that she laundered money and evaded taxes as part of a scheme in which prosecutors contend she sold dozens of fake paintings that she told customers had been created by some of the most famous artists of the 20th century.
The dealer, Glafira Rosales, who has been held without bail since her arrest in May, entered a federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan handcuffed and dressed in a blue prison smock. She uttered only the words “not guilty” in a low voice when asked about the charges by Judge Katherine Polk Failla in Federal District Court.
On Wednesday, federal officials in Manhattan announced that Ms. Rosales had been indicted on seven counts of wire fraud, money laundering, filing false tax returns and failing to report foreign bank accounts. Prosecutors said that from 1994 to 2009 Ms. Rosales sold two prominent Manhattan galleries more than 60 works that she said were by artists like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, but the authorities say were, in fact, forgeries.
According to the indictment, Ms. Rosales laundered the proceeds of those sales by transferring money through foreign bank accounts, then hid the income generated by the scheme by filing false tax returns and failing to inform the United States government of the existence of the foreign accounts.
The government says Ms. Rosales received more than $33 million for the works and failed to declare at least $12.5 million of it as income.

Art and Fraud

U.S. stops sale of Picasso painting valued at $11.5 million

By Carol Cratty, CNN Senior Producer

updated 8:42 PM EDT, Mon June 24, 2013

The private sale of "Compotier et tasse," a 1909 work by Pablo Picasso, was halted by the U.S. government.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Picasso's "Compotier et tasse," valued at $11.5 million, was for sale in New York
• The U.S. stopped its sale at the request of the Italian government
• The would-be seller is accused of bilking the city of Naples of $44 million in tax revenue

Washington (CNN) -- The United States obtained a restraining order Monday to block the sale of a painting by Pablo Picasso valued at an estimated $11.5 million at the request of the Italian government, the Justice Department announced.

The case involves a 1909 work by Picasso known as "Compotier et tasse" which had been offered for private sale in New York.

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American officials obtained a restraining order blocking any sale and preventing the painting from being moved after Italian authorities asked for help in connection to the prosecution of Gabriella Amati. She and her late husband, Angelo Maj, were charged by Italian prosecutors with embezzlement and fraud.

The couple allegedly worked with an official for the city of Naples and embezzled approximately $44 million of the city's tax revenues, according to Italian court documents.

The Picasso was not stolen but was purchased with money that Amati and her husband allegedly obtained through criminal activity, said a U.S. law enforcement official.

Agents working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement located and recovered the painting in New York, where it was being offered for sale, on May 21.

"Restraining this valuable artwork is an effort to help recover some of the estimated $44 million that this couple stole from the tax-paying citizens of Naples," ICE Director John Morton said in a written statement.