A Cheerful Prisoner: Art Forger All Smiles After Guilty Plea Seals Deal
The trial in the most spectacular case of art forgery ever seen in Germany is over — and ringleader Wolfgang Beltracchi can be happy with the outcome. Because of his confession, the millionaire fraudster has been given a virtual slap on the wrist, while the truth has been sacrificed for a deal.
The verdict passed down in Germany’s biggest-ever art forgery trial surprised no one — Judge William Kremer announced on Thursday that the four defendants were guilty in the €16 million ($22 million) fraud case. In Room 7 of the Cologne District Court, the judge sentenced the painter of the forgeries, 60-year-old Wolfgang Beltracchi, to six years in jail. His wife Helene, 53, received a four-year term, her sister Jeanette, 54, was given a suspended 21-month sentence and Beltracchi’s old pal and accomplice Otto Schulte-Kellinghaus, 67, was sent down for five years.
The fascinating trial dealt with 14 forged paintings, and came to an end after just nine days. The scheduled 40 sessions and 168 witnesses were not needed after a deal was reached — shorter sentences for Beltracchi and his gang in exchange for full confessions.
It was a deal which suited everyone; the prosecutor would otherwise not have been able to prove that Beltracchi had actually made the forgeries.
If the trial had continued without the deal, it would perhaps have had echoes of case of the fake “Count of Waldstein”, who was sentenced to nine years in prison by a Stuttgart court in June. He had sold sculptures supposedly made by Alberto Giacometti, but which were in reality fakes. His enterprise netted him and his gang around €8 million — a fraction of what Beltracchi and his cohorts raked in.
Many Crimes Too Old to be Prosecuted
And the whole truth about their operation is not yet in the open — the specific charges confessed to by the foursome are only the tip of the iceberg. The 14 paintings in question were presented as works by well-known classical modernist artists, earning the gang €16 million.
But old criminal police investigations in Berlin suggest that Beltracchi had passed on at least 15 forgeries by the 1980s, which the accomplices had then sold. They could not be charged with these crimes as they had already exceeded the statute of limitations period of 10 years.
And investigators have not uncovered everything about the later forgeries, either. Helene Beltracchi, her sister and Otto Schulte-Kellinghaus, and possibly other, unknown accomplices, could have flooded the art market with up to 100 fakes. Art expert Ralph Jentsch has even suggested that between 150 and 200 forgeries produced by Beltracchi could have been successfully passed on by accomplices. More fakes are expected to emerge in the coming years…