A Miami artwork supplier was indicted in a federal courtroom for promoting pretend Andy Warhol works, and will now withstand 10 years in jail.
Leslie Roberts, 62, allegedly bought the works at his Coconut Grove gallery, Miami Fine Art Gallery. He was indicted alongside Carlos Miguel Rodriguez Melendez, 37, who allegedly helped him promote these items.
Roberts claimed that the prints had been given the blessing of an authentication board run by the Andy Warhol Basis for the Visible Arts. However that board was dissolved in 2011 amid varied authorized actions, so it has not operated in additional than a decade.
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A release by the FBI claimed that Rodriguez Melendez “falsely represented that he was an worker of a New York-based public sale firm with a purpose to fraudulently authenticate the art work in to hide that the art work was pretend.”
He was arrested earlier this month on fraud and cash laundering costs, and was later launched on bond, according to the New York Times. Final week, varied Floridian shops reported that Miami Superb Artwork Gallery was raided by the FBI, however it wasn’t instantly clear why, since among the paperwork associated to Roberts’ have been sealed till earlier this month.
In 2024, a household of artwork collectors sued Roberts, claiming that that they had spent $6 million on faked Warhols, together with works that depicted Marilyn Monroe, Debbie Harry, and others who repeatedly figured within the Pop artist’s screenprinted work. The household claimed that it realized the works have been pretend upon nearer examination of emails purportedly from the Warhol Basis that got here from @andywarholfoundation.co addresses. In truth, the muse’s web site has a .org deal with.
Whereas the authorized filings appeared to supply substantial proof that the works have been pretend, Roberts had beforehand touted his work with the Warhol Basis. “One in every of my proudest moments was buying uncommon artwork from the Andy Warhol Basis,” he told Artnet, talking to not the web site’s Information arm however to its Artnet Gallery Community affiliate. “This milestone underscored our gallery’s dedication to curating distinctive works. One other standout second is the enjoyment of serving to shoppers uncover the artwork they’ve all the time desired, fulfilling their desires and enhancing their collections.”
In that interview, Roberts touted a present that he described as “our largest exhibition but of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol items.”
Roberts has beforehand confronted authorized bother earlier than. He has discovered himself on the heart of lawsuits over faked Romero Britto and Peter Max work. Following the 2015 Max lawsuit, Roberts acquired a 22-year jail sentence and was given three years of supervised launch. Then, in 2018, after he allegedly tried to barter the sale of a $75,000 Basquiat portray, that launch was revoked, and he briefly ended up again in jail.
The Miami New Instances has revealed an extensive overview of Roberts’s career, together with his varied authorized woes.
Of the current case involving the fraudulent Warhols, a lawyer for Roberts informed the Instances that the artwork supplier “vehemently maintains his innocence and appears ahead to the chance to current the complete info in a courtroom of regulation.”
