The woman shown above is Glafira Rosales, a New York art dealer, and she is accused selling Manhattan art galleries counterfeit works. Hit the jump for more details.
Claiming that the works of art were done by famous painters like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning, Glafira Rosales allegedly sold the fake art over a 15-year span. Art gallery victims collectively paid over $80 million in Rosales scheme. She claimed she got the paintings from collectors in Switzerland and Spain, but investigators found out they did not exist.
Rosales sold 63 phony art works to two galleries from 1994 to 2009. On Friday, at her arraignment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rosales pleaded not guilty on charges of money laundering, wire fraud, failing to report foreign bank accounts, and filing false tax returns.
Former FBI special agent, Brad Garret, told Good Morning America, “This was a great con, and a great sale on the front end. For someone to pass a forgery is not that difficult if you have an excellent forgery.”
If Glafira Rosales is convicted on all charges, she can face up to 59 years in prison.
