Seventy Thousand Signed Prints

A family ran a print-publishing business that had once issued legitimate editions of famous modern artists. Prosecutors alleged that after the founder's death, family members sold prints falsely presented as limited-edition works hand-signed by celebrated painters. According to the government, the prints were kept unsigned in a large inventory and signed with forged artist signatures only just before sale, then shipped with fake certificates of authenticity to dealers who resold them to the public. Sales went to undercover agents and to several dealers. Agents executing a search warrant seized about 70,000 prints. The defence challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, claimed the government withheld evidence about cooperating dealers, and argued that earlier civil forfeitures barred the prosecution.