3 Held in Plot to Sell $100 Million in Fake Art Masterpieces
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SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Three men were arrested on suspicion of trying to sell $100-million worth of fake art masterpieces by claiming the bogus Picassos and Rembrandts were purchased cheaply from an Arab sheik, the FBI said Saturday.
The three were arrested after agents posing as art patrons negotiated to buy paintings from an inventory of fakes that also included purported works by Gauguin, Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Rubens and Chagall, said Chuck Latting, FBI supervising agent in San Francisco.
The men, Anthony Barreiro, Ernest Ray Parker Jr. and Jeff Jones, were taken into custody Friday at the home they share and were being held in the San Francisco County Jail, Latting said.
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