PICTURE FRAUD GANG

Shannon News, 10 September 1926, Page 2

PICTURE FRAUD GANG

WEALTHY PEOPLE DUPED. REAL MASTERPIECES AS BAIT. Genuine art masterpieces are being used as bait to catch victims by gang's of tricksters specialising in picture frauds up and down the country. These tricksters have persuaded hundreds of people to pay high prices for mere rubbish. They are singling out for their atti ntion wealthy men who they think are lovers of art, but not expert enough to know whether a picture is genuine.

A leading London art dealer recently gave a reporter the following instances of frauds these tricksters have, perpetrated. They arranged 'a van-load of pictures —half of them genuine and valuable, and half of them bogus and worthless—to break down outside the house of a wealthy man. They ask *lhe occupant if he would accommodate the valuable cargo for the night. Finding in the morning that he was interested in several of the pictures, the gang told him the load had been sold by a noble family now in adversity, but most of the pictures he had chosen were not wanted particularly, and he could . have them at the knock-out _. price they had paid for them. f Thus he v/as sold one genuine picture -cheaply, and several bogus pictures at absurd prices.

The gang have sold a genuine masterpiece cheaply to a 'country magnate, told him that if he gets expert advice as to whether it should be cleaned, they will make a fine job of it free, and then, after an expert has told him that it is genuine, they have had it reproduced and sent him the fake.