In the latest development in the case of $80 million in fake artworks, Long Island art dealer Glafira Rosales, 57, pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to all nine counts against her. The charges included wire fraud, money laundering and tax-related crimes. She has agreed to forfeit $33 million, including her home in Sands Point, N.Y., and has agreed to pay restitution of up to $81 million. She may face as much as 99 years in prison.
According to the indictment, Rosales sold more than 60 fake works of modern art by painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell to two New York dealers. The galleries previously mentioned in connection with the case are Knoedler and Company and dealer Julian Weissman, who bought the works $32.2 million. The galleries collected $80 million for the same canvases. A Chinese painter residing in Queens, N.Y. created the paintings, which Rosales claimed to be selling for an anonymous Swiss client and a Spanish collector.
Rosales will be sentenced on Mar. 18, 2014.
