PHILADELPHIA, PA — A 77-year-old Reading man has been sentenced to prison for defrauding art buyers by selling forged works he falsely claimed were created by some of the world’s most renowned artists, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf announced that Carter Reese was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl to 60 days in prison, followed by two years of supervised release that includes four months of home detention. Reese was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and $186,125 in restitution.
Reese pleaded guilty in May to one count each of wire fraud and mail fraud. Prosecutors said that from February 2019 through March 2021, he marketed and sold art he represented as authentic works by artists including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and others. In reality, Reese knew the pieces were counterfeit.
According to court filings, Reese used false claims of authenticity to entice customers into paying significant sums for the fraudulent artwork.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Art Crime Team, with agents from its Philadelphia and Miami field offices. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ruth Mandelbaum and Jason Grenell.
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