A German art dealer has been sentenced to seven years in prison by a Stuttgart court for selling fake Alberto Giacometti sculptures worth millions of euros.
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The 62-year-old from Mainz was the mastermind behind a group of counterfeiters who swindled collectors out of some €9 million (SFr11.8 million).
Mainz was the location of a secret workshop of around 1,000 Giacometti-style sculptures, which was discovered in August 2009. Many items had already been sold to collectors with falsified certificates of authenticity.
Giacometti (1901-1966) was the leading Swiss artist and sculptor of the 20th century, most famous for his sculptures of slender, elongated figures, including his “walking men”.
His work is highly prized – his Grande femme debout II (Tall woman standing II) sold for $27.5 million in New York in 2008, confirming him as the most expensive Swiss artist.
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How Giacometti’s art walks like an Egyptian
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A new exhibition at Zurich’s Kunsthaus fine arts museum sets Giacometti’s modern works against the backdrop of relics from ancient Egypt. The similarities are striking. Giacometti (1901-1966) is most famous for his sculptures of slender, elongated figures, including his “walking men”. His work is highly prized – his Grande femme debout II (Tall woman standing…
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“Lac Léman vu de Saint-Prex” (Lake Geneva from Saint-Prex), painted in 1901, was sold to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby’s on Tuesday evening. The painting had been expected to fetch SFr4-6 million. The previous record for a Hodler painting was SFr5.7 million, set by “Thunersee mit Stockhornkette” also in Zurich in December 2006. “Ferdinand Hodler’s…
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An exhibition at Zurich’s Kunsthaus fine arts museum shows how Alberto Giacometti was influenced by his love of ancient Egypt. The gallery shows pictures in pairs, first the Egyptian, and then the Giacometti for comparison.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.