Man arrested in Mondane accused of attempting to smuggle fake da Vinci

A Spaniard who attempted to export a fake Leonardo da Vinci painting to Milan, Italy, has been arrested in France after a two-year investigation, local authorities said.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was intercepted at the Modane border post, about 120 kilometers from Milan, with the painting in his vehicle, the Spanish National Police said in a press release on Tuesday. An expired export license said the Leonardo da Vinci painting, titled “Portrait Giacomo Trivultio,” was worth about $1.43 million (1.3 million euros) and its final destination was Milan.

The investigation into the alleged fake painting began in July 2022, the press release said, after National Police officers received information through international police cooperation channels that French customs had tracked down a painting exported from Spain to Milan, Italy.

Although the man had a valid export permit for the painting, it had expired several months ago, making it an illegal export. The expiration of the permit also alerted customs officials at the Modane border, who in turn alerted the Spanish police. The man was tracked down in Madrid and arrested as a suspected perpetrator of a smuggling crime, the press release said.

The painting was later taken to the Museo Nacional del Prado, Spain's national art museum in Madrid, for analysis, where it was determined that the painting was a possibly fraudulent imitation.

The report states that the work is an imitation of Milanese portrait models from the late 15th and early 16th centuries and has no connection with Da Vinci. It was created with fraudulent intent, probably at the beginning of the 20th century.