The Historical Heritage Group of the National Police Attached to the Generalitat Valenciana, in collaboration with the Provincial Police Station of Albacete, have seized three pictorial works attributed to Pablo Ruiz Picasso and a fourth to Benjamín Palencia Pérez, which were sold for a total of €13,503,500.
The investigations, which began earlier this year, have ended with the arrest of five people as alleged perpetrators of fraud and intellectual property crimes. The detainees assured the Generalitat Police that the works came from an inheritance.
Regarding the works attributed to Picasso, the Heritage Group confirmed, through the Succession Picasso entity (which represents the artist’s heirs as a whole), that none of the paintings are original. This entity explained to the agents that, in June 2016, the detainees had already carried out an authenticity query of one of the works. However, despite having received a report to the contrary, they were marketing it for 10 million euro.
In relation to Benjamín Palencia’s painting, it was the artist’s great-nephew who confirmed that both the work and the signature are fake.
