FORGERY FACTORY

NYC Art Dealer Was a Big Faker, Prosecutors Say

Mehrad Sadigh allegedly sold a fake death mask of the pharaoh Tutankhamen to undercover federal agents for $4,000.

An art dealer in New York City manufactured thousands of forged antiquities and sold them in his gallery for decades, according to an indictment unsealed this week. Mehrad Sadigh, proprietor of the Sadigh Gallery, sold a fake $4,000 death mask of the pharaoh Tutankhamen to undercover federal agents as well as a forgery of a marble bust of an ancient Roman woman for the same price, authorities say. When federal investigators came calling, they said they found what amounted to a forgery factory. Sadigh was arrested earlier this month, and he is charged with scheming to defraud, grand larceny, criminal possession of a forged instrument, forgery and criminal simulation, and he has pleaded not guilty. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement, “For many years, this fake antiquities mill based in midtown Manhattan promised customers rare treasures from the ancient world and instead sold them pieces manufactured on-site in cookie-cutter fashion.”