[Konstantin]

Here's more detail about this in bold funny statement:

«NewsBalt» translated the material published by the British edition «Guardian», devoted to the arrest of scams involved counterfeit works of famous Russian artists.

German authorities have uncovered a group of crooks who have already earn about a million pounds, specializing in forgery of works of Russian avant-garde artists, including Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Natalia Goncharova.

About 100 federal police (German BKA) on Wednesday and Thursday, 12 and 13 June 2013, made a raid on a private possessions, offices, stores and art galleries across the country. Two suspects, aged 67 and 41, are suspected of being the leaders of the criminal group of 6 people were arrested during a raid in the city of Wiesbaden, which were seized thousands of fake paintings.

The search also led to Switzerland and Israel, according to their results still to be decided, according to the BKA.

Con artists allegedly sold more than 400 counterfeit works of art, written in the style of artists such as Kandinsky and Malevich. Also found that the suspects forged certificates of authenticity to create the impression that the paintings are previously unknown works.

According to the police, with the picture of them (scammers) can be obtained from four to seven round euro amounts. Two paintings-counterfeiting may have been sold in the period from 2011 and 2013 for a total amount of € 2 million (£ 1.7 million) to customers in Germany and Spain.

In July 2012, the Spanish police have arrested four people in an attempt to sell a fake work of Pablo Picasso's "Bust of a young man" for £ 1 million.

The high prices offered at auction, made of Russian avant-garde for the main purpose of fraud, says Rainer Grubel, who specializes in Russian art at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg.

- It is tempting to forge the work of some artists - he said.

Kandinsky is especially popular in Germany, as He lived here in the 20s of the last century. Born in Moscow in 1866 Kandinsky repeatedly moved from Russia to Germany, where he taught at the School of Painting and Architecture "Bauhaz" until it was closed in 1933 by the Nazis.

Grubel said that Kandinsky and Malevich were well-known fact that "broke the tradition of European painting of the time", the style of which was "reproduction of reality in the picture."

- Malevich did this by painting with no object - painting, free from the object, and resorted to abstract Kandinsky, reproducing all the features of reality by means of contours and shapes, - he explains.

In addition to its popularity and high prices at auctions, avant-garde art is easier to forge than other work, said William McDougall, director of the auction McDougal.

- It is known that of the avant-garde is the main subject of forgery only for stylistic reasons - the expert - not so difficult to write a persuasive black box. It is much more difficult to forge, such as Rembrandt.

McDougall said that most of the work has been denied for auction on the grounds that it is difficult to say they are authentic or not.

- Of course, much safer to buy at auction, as it is a public event, and the works of art exhibited reported in a couple of months, so that people can identify fake, - he added.

There are also other ways to determine the authenticity of the works, such as the study of the origins, including a history of buying and selling, although it is not always possible, Grubel said.

BKA employees say they were able to deal a "decisive blow" to the international network of fraudsters involved in counterfeiting.

- I see this as yet another example of the importance of international cooperation between law enforcement agencies in the fight against organized crime, - the head of the BKA Jörg Circus.