German police arrest a gang selling counterfeit paintings by Picasso and Rembrandt policy

German police said they arrested a gang of counterfeiting paintings, which demanded millions of dollars and claimed they were by major artists, including Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt, including a painting that had been hanging in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for decades.

The police added that last week they arrested the suspected leader of the gang, a 77-year-old man from southwestern Germany, and then released him on conditions.

The gang leader and 10 other accomplices face charges of involvement in an organized gang to commit fraud using forged works of art.

The police that led the operation in Bavaria said – in a statement – that they repeatedly raided headquarters across Germany and Switzerland at dawn on Wednesday, October 15, and confiscated documents, mobile phones, and a number of suspected forgery license plates.

She added that she first discovered the network when the main suspect offered for sale two supposedly original Picasso paintings, including a painting he claimed was by the photographer and activist Dora Maar, Picasso’s muse and long-time partner.

Police said that further investigations concluded that he was also demanding 120 million Swiss francs ($151 million) for a forged copy of Rembrandt’s 1662 painting “Destalmeister” or “Samplers,” a group portrait that has hung in the Rijksmuseum since 1885.