NEW YORK – A metal shop owner who attempted to sell and sold bronze sculptures that he misrepresented, including a Jasper Johns’ artwork, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, officials said.
Brian Ramnarine, 60, plead guilty to fraudulently selling and attempting to sell, for more than $11 million, bronze sculptures that he falsely represented to be works of art by prominent artists Jasper Johns, Robert Indiana, and Saint Clair Cemin, officials said.
Ramnarine’s guilty plea came on the fifth day of trial in January.
“Brian Ramnarine’s only art was as a con artist who concocted and carried out not one, but three separate schemes to peddle fake sculptures to unsuspecting buyers for millions of dollars, pretending that they had been made by well-known artists,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
Here is How Ramnarine Bamboozled the Art World
In 2010, officials said Ramnarine began representing to various members of the art world that he owned a bronze sculpture, titled “Flag,” that was an authorized Jasper Johns work of art created in 1989 (the “Purported 1989 Bronze Sculpture”).
In an effort to identify a purchaser for the Purported 1989 Sculpture, he showed it to a representative of an auction house who specialized in the sale of rare art, and to an art dealer.
Around the same time, Ramnarine also attempted to sell the Purported 1989 Bronze Flag directly to an art collector.
At Ramnarine’s direction, authorities said several art brokers were in frequent contact with the art collector, and with the art collector’s representative, regarding the possible sale of what was represented to be a genuine and authorized Jasper Johns work of art.
Through an art broker to whom Ramnarine had shown the Purported 1989 Bronze Sculpture, Ramnarine informed the art collector’s representative that he would sell it for approximately $11 million.
After the art collector expressed doubts about the authenticity of the Purported 1989 Bronze Sculpture, Ramnarine provided false and fraudulent documents and information in an effort to deceive the art collector into believing that the artwork was genuine, officials said.
For example, authorities noted that Ramnarine stated that the Purported 1989 Bronze Sculpture was a gift from Johns.
To support that assertion, Ramnarine provided an art broker with a letter dated August 23, 1989, purportedly from Johns, along with other documents that falsely and fraudulently reflected that the Purported 1989 Bronze Sculpture was a genuine Johns work of art, and that it was owned by Ramnarine, according to federal officials.
In truth, the Purported 1989 Bronze Sculpture was a fake. Johns never authorized its production nor did he transfer ownership to Ramnarine.
Instead, against Johns’s earlier instructions and without authorization, Ramnarine used the original Flag Mold provided by Johns to make the Purported 1989 Bronze Flag, dated it “1989,” and forged Johns’s signature on the back of the sculpture, officials said.
Ramnarine was arrested in November 2012 on charges arising from his attempt to sell the Purported 1989 Bronze sculpture.
Ramnarine Sold Fake Sculptures to the “Gallery.”
Shortly after his arrest and while he was on bail, Ramnarine engaged in two new schemes to defraud an online art gallery located in Queens, the “Gallery.”
In particular, Ramnarine sold to the Gallery two fake sculptures, titled “Two” and “Orb,” that he falsely claimed had been made and authorized by Robert Indiana, and numerous fake sculptures that he falsely claimed had been made and authorized by Saint Clair Cemin.
The Gallery paid Ramnarine tens of thousands of dollars for the phony sculptures, authorities said.