Fake Basquiat painting on sale at Danieli Fine Art for $12,000,000.00
In the spring of 2022, Marc A. Gervasi, a special agent with the FBI's Art Crime Team, filed a complaint with the Southern Florida District Court about his investigation into Bouaziz's business dealings. In the complaint, he explained what he had found. Gervasi thought that Bouaziz sold at least six people fake works by artists like Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, and Banksy through his two galleries in Palm Beach, Danieli Fine Art and Galerie Danieli. During the investigation, undercover police officers went to Bouaziz and bought a fake "Superman" print from him for $25,000. During the deal, Bouaziz is said to have told the undercover agent, "This is very rare... He liked Superman a hundred times, a hundred times. This is one of the good ones, at least in my opinion. That's really pretty. It's not very many. It's excellent."
On the back of the print was a stamp from the Carnegie Museum of Art. Bouaziz allegedly put it there to make the work look more real. Gervasi said he checked with the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Carnegie Museum and found that the museum was not authorized to make and sell "Superman" edition prints and had not done so. Gervasi and agents who were not known to Bouaziz kept buying works from him. Each time, Bouaziz is said to have shown proof that they were real and told the undercover agents that they were getting good prices. Bouaziz often said that he got his art from a German millionaire who lived in Peru or from reputable galleries and auction houses. Each time, Gervasi and the undercover agents would record the pieces and the documents that came with them, only to find that they were all fakes. Late in 2021, for their last sting, the Art Crime team agreed to pay $22 million for a group of works by Basquiat, Haring, Banksy, and Georgia O'Keeffe. The team gave Bouaziz Bitcoin as a down payment. Bouaziz was selling a Basquiat painting for $12 million as part of this collection. Gervasi found that Bouaziz had bought the same piece of art from an auction website for $495.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum print sold by Danieli Fine Art
"The FBI did not see a single transaction in those accounts in which Bouaziz or his galleries bought high-value art that was comparable to the art Bouaziz sold to victims as originals," Gervasi wrote in his complaint. "Bouaziz bought cheap copies from online auction sites and then sold them as originals to people who didn't know any better at much higher prices." Bouaziz is in the US on a B-2 visa, which is a tourist visa, which means he can't run a business there. This makes things even more complicated. Bouaziz pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of money laundering, which was related to the sale of fake Warhol works to an unnamed victim. Bouaziz got a deposit of $200,000. He then wired that money to other accounts. The court also dropped 16 other charges. On May 30, Bouaziz will be given his sentence.
Selena Mattei
