Art dealer pleads guilty to $80M scheme
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Glafira Rosales plead guilty to selling forged art works in Manhattan Federal Court.
Photo: Gabrielle Bass
A rogue art dealer copped a plea on Monday to masterminding a $80 million scheme in which she pawned off 63 fake works to two Manhattan galleries created over a 15-year period by a struggling Queens artist.
A weeping Glafira Rosales appeared to Manhattan federal court to fess up to charges of money laundering, wire fraud and tax crimes – less than a month after pleading not guilty to the nine-count indictment.
The 57-year-old Mexican immigrant had claimed the works were previously unknown pieces by some top 20th Century expressionists.
The sales to Julian Weissman Fine Art and the now-shuttered Knoedler Gallery took place from the mid 1990s to 2009.
Rosales. 57, of Long Island, pocketed $33.2 million from the sales, and then the galleries flipped the artwork for more than $80 million to unsuspecting buyers, the feds said.
“During that period, I agreed with others to sell works of art claimed to be created by various expressionist artists, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, and Robert Motherwell, and to make false representation as to the authenticity and provenance of those works,” Rosales told Judge Katherine Failla. “These works were actually fakes created by an individual residing in Queens.”
Pei-Shen Qian, 73, reportedly created the works Rosales.
He was discovered by Rosales’ long-time boyfriend in the mid 1990s selling his own art on Manhattan streets, the indictment says. In some cases, Qian signed the purported artists’ names to the works, such as Pollock’s.
Qian has not been charged with any crimes, nor has anyone else in the matter.
However, during a court conference last month, prosecutors said they expected to make more arrests.
Rosales faces a maximum of 99 years behind bars but is expected to get substantially less jail time through her plea deal.
She has agreed to forfeit $33.2 million in cash and properties — including her Sand Points, NY home and some legit art work she purchased – and pay $81 million in restitution to victims.
Rosales, who faces potential deportation back to Mexico, also agreed to fill out accurate tax returns for 2006 to 2011 and pay back taxes owed. She confessed to transferring sale proceeds of the fake works to bank accounts in Spain.
Rosales was released on bail and will be sentenced in the coming months.
Knoedler Gallery closed in 2011 after previous forgery allegations prompted an FBI investigation and a series of lawsuits by buyers. Knoedler has denied knowing the artworks were fake
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