Rick Spector of Stairway to the Stars directed me to an interesting article on the Maine Antique Digest website about art dealers who have plead guilty to a scheme involving their passing off art with manufactured origins, fictitious artist names and identities, and fraudulent certificates of authenticity (COAs). While related to the art world, similar crimes take place in the original prop marketplace, so the developments are quite informative.
The full article can found at the Maine Antique Digest website: LINK
The summary of the story is that a mother and son who owned and operated an art gallery plead guilty to crimes involving the sale of paintings imported from China which were modified with forged signatures and attributed to made up “local” and “emerging” artists with invented biographies, along with the issuance of fraudulent COAs.
Christopher and Constance Breithoff pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and both face penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, with sentencing scheduled for early next year.
Below is a press release from the FBI New Orleans Division website (see fbi.gov), obviously issued prior to the plea reported by Maine Antique Digest:
United States Attorney Jim Letten
Eastern District of Louisiana
September 17, 2008
LOCAL ART GALLERY OWNERS CHARGED IN ART FRAUD SCHEME
CHRISTOPHER BREITHOFF, 35, and CONSTANCE “CONNIE” BREITHOFF, 60, both of Covington, Louisiana, were charged for crimes involving a scheme to defraud customers of the Barlow Art Gallery and Transitions, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.
CHRISTOPHER BREITHOFF and his mother CONSTANCE BREITHOFF were charged in a Bill of Information for Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.
Since 2004, defendants CHRISTOPHER BREITHOFF and CONSTANCE BREITHOFF owned and operated the Barlow Art Gallery and Transitions, (“Barlow”), 3523 Highway 190, Mandeville, Louisiana. From 1999 to 2005, defendants operated a Barlow location at 805 Royal Street in the French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana.
According to the Bill of Information filed in federal court, the defendants devised a scheme to defraud Barlow customers through various misrepresentations. Specifically, the BREITHOFFs would purchase, in bulk, Chinese paintings from wholesale distributors knowing that the paintings would be resold by Barlow as original works of local and regional emerging artists. CONSTANCE BREITHOFF concocted fictional artist identities, biographies, and unique signatures to mask the true nature and origin of the Chinese paintings. In some instances, CONSTANCE BREITHOFF would paint over any existing signatures on the Chinese artwork and would then paint the bogus artist’s unique signature.
The BREITHOFFs and employees of Barlow would misrepresent the true artist’s identity to its customers and would provide Barlow customers with fictional written biographies of the non-existent artists that defendants created. Defendants would advertise on their website and represent to their customers in person that artwork sold at Barlow was painted by “hand-picked local and regional artists” and by “emerging artists” knowing that to be untrue.
Further, CHRISTOPHER BREITHOFF, CONSTANCE BREITHOFF, and employees of Barlow would mail a Certificate of Authenticity along with a description of the fictional artist to the customer. Further, some employees of Barlow would represent to customers that the artwork sold at Barlow would likely appreciate in value as the artist became more popular.
While the Bill of Information only charges a few specific transactions, the FBI and the U. S. Attorney’s Office are aware that this conduct was widespread over the course of several years, and potential victims are asked to contact the U. S. Attorney’s Office Victim Witness Coordinator at (504) 680-3000 or the FBI Victim Witness Coordinator at (504) 816-3000.
CHRISTOPHER BREITHOFF and CONSTANCE BREITHOFF will be ordered to appear before a federal magistrate judge to be formally arraigned on this Bill of Information. If convicted, the BREITHOFFs face a maximum penalty of five (5) years, followed by up to three (3) years supervised release, and a $250,000.00 fine.
U. S. Attorney Letten reiterated that a Bill of Information is merely a charging document and that the guilt of the defendants must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
This matter was investigated by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New Orleans Division.
The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant U. S. Attorney Brian M. Klebba who is the Computer and High Intellectual Property Coordinator for the U. S. Attorney’s Office.
There is also a press release on the United States Attorney’s Office website (see usdoj.gov) announcing the guilty plea.
Another interesting download is the Factual Basis for United States of America v. Christopher Breithoff, Constance “Connie” Breithoff. Of particular interest to me are the values of the fictional works serving as examples in the case: $4,150.00, $2,400.00, $1,875.00, $140.00, $140.00.
Given the high value of props and wardrobe sold as original and authentic, it would seem plausible that the United States Department of Justice would be open to pursuing similar cases in which fraud is alleged with regards to movie and television memorabilia, based on the precidence of this case. A great deal of movie prop fraud involves the employment of fraudulant COAs similar to what is reported with this Breithoff case.
I know some collectors who have been defrauded have had challenges with local district attorneys – perhaps contacting the United States Department of Justice will have more substantive results.
Jason De Bord