Thousands of counterfeit limited-edition prints of works purportedly drawn by famous artists were sold at inflated prices to victims around the world, federal authorities said Wednesday in announcing federal charges in Chicago against two suburban art distributors and five others.
Michael Zabrin, an art dealer in Northbrook, is accused of selling the counterfeits, mostly through eBay.
Zabrin was convicted more than a decade ago in a similar scheme.
A second Northbrook man, James Kennedy, also was charged in a separate indictment with forging the signatures of artists Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder, Joan Miro and Roy Lichtenstein, officials said.
Kennedy was arrested in Jacksonville in January on charges he threatened a witness who was cooperating in the federal probe. He is being held in a Chicago federal jail.
The fake prints were sold to victims in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, prosecutors alleged.
U.S. postal inspectors, FBI officials and Spanish law enforcement officials worked on the two-year investigation.
Robert Grant, Chicago’s top FBI official, said the problem of counterfeit art was “massive in scope” around the world.
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Worldwide reach
The two overlapping counterfeiting schemes, one with tentacles in Europe, reaped more than $5 million, prosecutors said during a news conference.
