A New York art dealer has agreed to plead guilty to selling two Manhattan art galleries over $30 million worth of fake art.
Glafira Rosales, of Long Island, was in Manhattan federal court on Monday and she pleaded guilty to the scam, notes The New York Daily News. She could be sentenced to 99 years in prison.
According to The LA Times, Rosales admitted to selling 63 bogus art pieces from 1994 to 2009. She claimed that the pieces were undiscovered masterpieces by some of the last century’s greatest painters, including Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. These were then sold to galleries for $33.2 million and the galleries sold them to collectors for $80 million.
While the person who painted the fakes was not named in the court documents, the Daily News reports that they were made by Pei-Shen Qian, 73, who will not be charged. He is already on his way to his native China, an attorney for one of the East Side galleries that fell for the scam said.
Rosales, 57, is also giving up her expensive property on Long Island, which she paid for with her profits from the scam. She was turned in by an associate in a deal for a shorter jail sentence. She said she used Spanish bank accounts to hold the money.
She will be sentenced on March 18, 2014. The AP has reported that prosecutors are looking to charge others involved in the scheme.