Daniel Elie Bouaziz, a Palm Beach, Florida-based art dealer and gallery owner, has been charged with selling fraudulent works of art attributed to artists like Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. In order to perpetuate his scam, federal prosecutors say, Bouaziz would provide buyers with bogus certificates of authenticity and insist he was an authority on the provenance of the artworks. In some cases, prosectors say, his clients were charged as much as $120,000 and $85,000 for shoddy reproductions that were essentially worthless. Bouaziz was charged after agents in an FBI sting operation solicited the dealer’s aid, and spent $22 million for several fraudulent works.
