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"&lt;p&gt;Spanish Police have arrested two brothers from Girona, Spain, who attempted to sell a fake &lt;a href=\"http://www.artnet.com/artists/francisco de-goya/\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;Francisco de Goya&lt;/a&gt; painting to a purported sheikh, &lt;a href=\"http://www.lne.es/sucesos/2015/02/20/estafan-hermanos-vender-goya-falso/1716192.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;EFE reports&lt;/a&gt;. But the &amp;#8220;sheikh&amp;#8221; was no victim: he paid the pair with photocopied money.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;The con artists realized they had been tricked\u00A0when they tried to deposit 1.7\u00A0million\u00A0Swiss francs (\u20AC1.5 million) in a Geneva bank and were told\u00A0that the banknotes were mere photocopies.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;Spanish police officers found out about the scam in December 2014, when the Avignon customs warned them that they had intercepted two Spanish brothers trying to smuggle 1.7\u00A0million\u00A0fake Swiss francs.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=\"https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-toilet-on-the-river-art-basel-521948\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;Related: Sitting in &amp;#8216;The Toilet on the River&amp;#8217; at Art Basel 2016&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;The sheikh had purportedly agreed to pay a total of \u20AC4 million for the Goya painting, entitled\u00A0&lt;em&gt;Portrait of don Antonio Mar\u00EDa Esquivel&lt;/em&gt;. The first batch of cash was to be collected in Turin, and was delivered by a middleman from the prince\u2019s entourage. Apparently, the brothers verified the cash was legit with a machine, but the middleman managed to switch it before they left for Switzerland.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adding Insult to Injury&lt;br /&gt;\n&lt;/strong&gt;The brothers had also given a \u20AC300,000 premium to the middleman who had introduced them to the sheikh. In order to do so, they had asked a friend to lend them the money, promising to give it back the following day, with an extra \u20AC80,000.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;But things did not pan out as expected. The sheikh and the middleman, carrying the \u20AC300,000, have gone underground and their whereabouts are currently unknown. Meanwhile, the fake Goya painting\u2014which was found in one of the brothers\u2019 houses upon their arrest\u2014is currently being held by police.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=\"https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-supplies-meth-australia-bust-427763\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Related: Drug Bust Uncovers $700 Million Worth of Methamphetamines in Art Supplies&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;The shambolic\u00A0art swindle began back in 2003, when the brothers first agreed to buy the Goya painting for \u20AC270,000, convinced it was the real deal.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;They only paid a deposit of \u20AC20,000, however, as the transaction was halted due to the painting\u2019s lack of a certificate of authenticity. In 2006, a Goya expert hired by the Girona Provincial Court deemed that the painting was a fake, done by a Goya contemporary rather than the Spanish master himself. The expert cited a key element\u00A0that had allowed him to establish its fake provenance: the forger had forgotten to paint a specific medal of honor on the subject\u2019s chest, clearly visible in the original.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;The Provincial Court thus let the brothers keep the fake and relieved them of having to pay the standing amount, \u20AC250,000. Knowing they owned a fake, they started to look for someone to sell it to, just as they had been conned themselves. Little did they know they were soon\u00A0to meet their match.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;Goya paintings have been in the news\u2014see\u00A0&lt;a href=\"http://news.artnet.com/art-world/unknown-goya-self-portrait-discovered-languishing-in-french-museum-261876\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;Unknown Goya Self-Portrait Discovered Languishing in French Museum&lt;/a&gt;\u00A0and\u00A0&lt;a href=\"http://news.artnet.com/in-brief/spanish-politicians-busted-for-money-laundering-involving-goya-paintings-165270\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;Spanish Politicians Busted for Money Laundering Involving Goya Paintings&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;\n&lt;em&gt;Follow &lt;a href=\"http://facebook.com/artnetnews\" target=\"_blank\"&gt;artnet News&lt;/a&gt; on Facebook.&lt;/em&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<https://news.artnet.com/art-world/police-arrest-brothers-who-sold-a-fake-goya-and-were-paid-with-fake-cash-262919>