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BBC MUNDO RADIO
(April 27) -- Three years ago, Los Angeles art dealer Tatiana Khan sold a 1902 pastel by Pablo Picasso for $2 million. She told the buyer it had come from the family of famed publisher Malcolm Forbes and was in fact worth far more.
Only problem was the painting was a fake. In fact, federal authorities say Khan paid an art restorer $1,000 to paint a copy of the painting called "La Femme au Chapeau Bleu," or "The Woman in the Blue Hat."
Now, the 70-year-old from West Hollywood could be off to prison.
Khan agreed today to plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI and witness tampering, according to a guilty plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court. The plea agreement calls for a prison sentence of no more than 21 months. She is scheduled to enter a plea on May 6.
Under the agreement, Khan will make full restitution to the buyer in question and forfeit to the government a $725,000 artwork by abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning, which she purchased with some money from the fake Picasso sale.
According to a court document and the U.S. Attorney's Office, Khan ran an art and antiques gallery, Chateau Allegre, on North La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood.
In August 2006, she arranged to have an art restorer in North Hollywood make a copy of "La Femme au Chapeau Bleu," providing him with a color photograph of it, the plea agreement said.
A few months later, she sold the fake painting to a person described in court records only as "victim V.S."
Khan told the buyer the painting was the same one that had been sold in 1990 by the auction house Sotheby's, and also that it had been owned by the Forbes family. She went on to say that she handled private sales for the Forbes family and was able to sell its items, "which purportedly included the copy, for substantially less than their fair market value because the Forbes family wanted to keep the sales private," the court document said.
After selling the fake painting, she continued to make false and misleading statements to the buyer, authorities alleged. For one, she provided a fake appraisal showing the painting was worth at least $4 million.
But in 2008, the owner received a report from Dr. Enrique Mallen, who compared photos of the fake painting and the real one sold by Sotheby's in New York on May 17, 1990. According to an FBI affidavit, Mallen had concluded the fake was "not by the hand of Pablo Picasso."
In September 2009, Khan reportedly changed her story. She told an FBI agent she had obtained the painting from someone named "Rusica Sakic Porter," the plea agreement said. The following month, she allegedly told the art restorer who had painted the picture to lie to the FBI and say only restoration work had been done, not copying.
Her Los Angeles attorney James W. Spertus told AOL News:
"Mrs. Kahn has a 45 year career of selling antiques and fine arts and she's accepting responsibility for making a false statement to an FBI agent in connection with one painting. She hopes to put this investigation behind her and move forward with her career. "
Only problem was the painting was a fake. In fact, federal authorities say Khan paid an art restorer $1,000 to paint a copy of the painting called "La Femme au Chapeau Bleu," or "The Woman in the Blue Hat."
Now, the 70-year-old from West Hollywood could be off to prison.
Los Angeles Times / MCT
Los Angeles art dealer Tatiana Khan agreed to plead guilty on Tuesday for selling a fake 1902 pastel by Pablo Picasso called "La Femme Au Chapeau Blue" for $2 million.
Khan agreed today to plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI and witness tampering, according to a guilty plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court. The plea agreement calls for a prison sentence of no more than 21 months. She is scheduled to enter a plea on May 6.
Under the agreement, Khan will make full restitution to the buyer in question and forfeit to the government a $725,000 artwork by abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning, which she purchased with some money from the fake Picasso sale.
According to a court document and the U.S. Attorney's Office, Khan ran an art and antiques gallery, Chateau Allegre, on North La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood.
In August 2006, she arranged to have an art restorer in North Hollywood make a copy of "La Femme au Chapeau Bleu," providing him with a color photograph of it, the plea agreement said.
A few months later, she sold the fake painting to a person described in court records only as "victim V.S."
Khan told the buyer the painting was the same one that had been sold in 1990 by the auction house Sotheby's, and also that it had been owned by the Forbes family. She went on to say that she handled private sales for the Forbes family and was able to sell its items, "which purportedly included the copy, for substantially less than their fair market value because the Forbes family wanted to keep the sales private," the court document said.
After selling the fake painting, she continued to make false and misleading statements to the buyer, authorities alleged. For one, she provided a fake appraisal showing the painting was worth at least $4 million.
But in 2008, the owner received a report from Dr. Enrique Mallen, who compared photos of the fake painting and the real one sold by Sotheby's in New York on May 17, 1990. According to an FBI affidavit, Mallen had concluded the fake was "not by the hand of Pablo Picasso."
In September 2009, Khan reportedly changed her story. She told an FBI agent she had obtained the painting from someone named "Rusica Sakic Porter," the plea agreement said. The following month, she allegedly told the art restorer who had painted the picture to lie to the FBI and say only restoration work had been done, not copying.
Her Los Angeles attorney James W. Spertus told AOL News:
"Mrs. Kahn has a 45 year career of selling antiques and fine arts and she's accepting responsibility for making a false statement to an FBI agent in connection with one painting. She hopes to put this investigation behind her and move forward with her career. "
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