Andrew Shannon, the man who punched an immense hole in the surface of at $10 million Claude Monet landscape at the National Gallery of Dublin, has officially been sentenced to 5 years in prison for his actions.  Shannon is also banned from any art museum for 15 months after his release. (more…)

Noted German dealer Helge Achenbach has been accused of falsifying accounts on artworks and classic cars he purchased on behalf of the Albrecht family, the heirs to the Aldi Grocery Store fortune, including paintings by Picasso and Roy Lichtenstein.  In court documents, Achenbach is accused of claiming a higher price on works purchsed to achieve a higher commission, although he claims he offered a buyback deal on all sales, and that his client’s failure to return any work indicates his innocence.  “Where there has been no damage, there can be no fraud,” he said in a statement through his lawyer. (more…)

Performance artist Istvan Kantor was arrested yesterday at the Whitney Museum‘s Jeff Koons exhibition, after he splashed his own blood on the wall of the space, and signed the name “Monty Cantsin” on the wall, a nom de plume for artists involved in the Canadian “Neoist” movement.  Kantor has a history of vandalizing major exhibitions, and was actually awarded a Governor General’s Award by the Canadian government for his work. (more…)

A trove of artworks valued at over $4.5 million has been discovered in Brazil, hidden away in shipping crates sent over from the United States.  The works, among them pieces by contemporary artists Os Gemeos and Sergio de Camargo were among the possessions of a Brazilian woman who authorities believe was seeking to avoid export taxes. (more…)

San Francisco real estate mogul Luke Brugnara has been charged with mail fraud following the aborted purchase of $11 million in works by Willem de Kooning, Edgar Degas, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso.  Brugnara reportedly purchased the works from a New York dealer with the intent of opening a museum, but never paid for the artworks, claiming he had received them as a gift.  When the dealer accompanied the works to California for delivery, she was astonished to find that the address he had given was not inhabited.  “Brugnara instructed the delivery personnel to leave the crates in his garage. The art dealer had never before seen anyone request art of such value to be placed in a garage,” writes FBI special agent Jeremy Desor. (more…)

An intrepid thief made off with a piece of a Danh Vo sculpture Thursday, stealing the work from City Hall Park in New York while the work was being installed.  “We can confirm that a small part of the artwork disappeared from the park during installation, and a police investigation is underway,” a representative from the Public Art Fund noted. (more…)

Helly Nahmad was sentenced Wednesday to a year in prison for his role in an illegal gambling ring, the New York Post reports.  “The record here before me reveals that the defendant has contempt for the law — and that he believes the rules apply to everyone else,” Judge Jesse Furman said. (more…)

The sentencing for art dealer Helly Nahmad is scheduled for this Wednesday in Manhattan, with prosecutors pushing for a one year to 18 month prison sentence, while Nahmad’s defense attorney’s have proposed a program for bringing homeless youth in the Bronx to the Metropolitan Museum.  “I do not have a great education in other subjects,”  Nahmad said in a letter to Judge Jesse M. Furman. “But I really do know a lot about art, and I think I could really teach young people in a good way and hopefully introduce them to a world they might otherwise never visit.” (more…)

A group of artists have donated works to a benefit auction for the legal defense fees of Maximo Caminero, the Miami artist accused of breaking a vase at the exhibition of works by Ai Weiwei at the Perez Art Museum.   “We do not support the act, but we support the intention,” said painter Danilo Gonzalez. (more…)

The proceedings over the alleged forgery of Jasper Johns‘ 1960 work Flag has ended with a guilty plea by Brian Ramnarine, the Queens foundry owner who admitted to copying the artist’s work and attempting to sell it for $11 million.  Ramnarine’s admission of guilt means he will not challenge any sentence of 10 years or less in prison, but could spend an additional 20 years for admitting to additional sculpture frauds after his arrest. (more…)

Another lawsuit has been filed against the now-closed Knoedler Gallery, this time alleging that its dealers willfully sold a Malibu couple a pair of paintings attributed to Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning.  The federal suit is filed against the Knoedler Gallery, president Ann Freedman, chairman Michael Hammer and worker Jaime Andrade, along with dealer Glafira Rosales, who has just recently agreed to a plea deal in her criminal case.  “Defendants showed virtually no interest in the authenticity or origin of the works,” the lawsuit says. (more…)

Francesco Vezzoli’s planned installation of an Italian church in the courtyard of MoMA PS1 in New York has been cancelled after Italian authorities intervened to block the artist’s export of the ruins.  Vezzoli is now under criminal investigation for the deconstruction of the church, despite the prior blessing of the Mayor of Montegiordano, where the church was located.  Vezzoli is searching for a new way to show his work at MoMA, but has yet to fully commit to a new plan.  “It’s like love — if this church turns you down, you can’t fall in love again right away,” he said. “My Juliet is being kept captive.” (more…)

Painter Graham Ovenden has been jailed for 2 years and three months, following an appeals court ruling that his prior, non-custodial sentence was “unduly lenient.”  Ovenden was convicted in April of sexual abuse against children.  “Graham Ovenden committed terrible sexual offences against vulnerable young girls who were in his charge and ought to have felt safe. He manipulated them and abused his position of trust.”  Says Attorney General Dominic Grieve. (more…)

While Olga Dogaru, the Romanian woman who claimed she burnt works by Picasso and Monet in her stove after fearing for the arrest of her son, has since retracted her story, Romanian authorities have identified at least three paintings in the ashes of the woman’s home.  Authorities found nails and tacks, as well as traces of oil paint in Dogaru’s oven, but were unable to correctly identify the paintings as the missing works.  “We found remains of burned oil paintings, but whether they are the ones that were stolen is a separate question, to be determined by prosecutors and judges.”  Says Ernest Oberlaender-Tarnoveanu, head of Romania’s National History Museum. (more…)

Long Island art dealer Glafira Rosales was arraigned this week in court, pleading “not guilty” to charges of selling over sixty fraudulent art works claimed to be by post-war masters Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, among others.  The prosecution also accused Rosales of hiding the proceeds (over $12.5 million in undeclared incomes) of the sales in foreign sales accounts. (more…)

The Jibaozhai museum in the northern Chinese region of Hebei has been shut down after authorities determined that nearly all of the works in its collection were fake.  Counterfeiting has been a major issue for China in the past, and government agencies are working to crack down on these violations.  “Jibaozhai has no qualification to be a museum as its collections are fake and it hasn’t reported to my department for approval,” says an official from the Hebei cultural heritage bureau. (more…)

Fearing for her son, the suspect in the theft of seven paintings by Picasso, Monet and more from a Dutch Museum, a Romanian woman has come forth saying that she has burned the paintings in her stove.  Olga Dogaru, the mother of suspect Rodu Dogaru, had buried the works when her son was arrested, and finally destroyed them in February.  Investigators are analyzing the contents of her stove to check for evidence of the works, which were worth tens of millions of dollars. (more…)

In the past two years, U.S. authorities have seized over $100 Million in art and antiques from Subhash Kapoor, a 64-year-old American citizen accused as one of the biggest smuggles of ancient antiquities and art in the world.  Kapoor has sold or donated ancient art works to a number of prominent museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and LACMA, and is currently being held in India as a suspect in an international smuggling ring.  The United States is also seeking its own charges for the dealer.  “It’s one of our most significant antiquities and artifacts investigations that we’ve conducted,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge James T. Hayes says. (more…)

The Ammersee home of German painter Georg Baselitz has been raided by German tax officials, who seized several crates of files as part of investigation into tax evasion.  The artist was implicated in tax dodging after his name appeared on a list of secret bank account holders with the Swiss bank UBS.  Baselitz had been quoted earlier this year as saying: “Despite all the taxes people pay, there supposedly isn’t any money in this country for art.” (more…)

British artist Graham Ovenden has been convicted of sexual abuse charges, stemming from accusations by former models for the artist over a number of years in London and Cornwall.  While Ovenden, who has had exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has flatly denied the charges, the Truro Crown Court has convicted him of six counts of sexual indecency with a child, and one of indecent assault.  When asked why they had not come forth earlier, one complainant’s mother replied: “I thought if I went to police, she wouldn’t be believed; if I went and confronted Graham myself, he would have flatly denied it. I thought there was nothing to be achieved but a lot of stress for my child.” (more…)