In Germany, an employee of the museum in the city of Munich admitted that he replaced several paintings from the stock of fakes and put the originals for auction, DW reports.
Munich District Court found a 30-year-old man guilty of three completed sales of cultural values and one attempt and sentenced him to conditional imprisonment for a period of one year and nine months.
The court also decided to recover more than 60 thousand euros from the accused as compensation.
From May 2016 to April 2018, the accused worked in the museum as a technical worker and had access to the funds, where the paintings were stored. According to the court, he replaced the picture of Franz von Plays “The Tale of the Frog King” on the fake.
Affirming that the picture belonged to his great -grandmother or great -grandfather, he put the original for auction in the Munich auction house, which sold a picture for 70 thousand euro gallery in Switzerland. After deducting the auction expenses, he remained 49,127.40 euros in cash.
He also stole from the vault of the museum the painting “Tasting the Wine” by Eduard von Grutzner and “Two girls who collect firewood in the mountains” Franz von Defregger. Their sale brought him about 12 thousand euros.
In general, the defendant received 60,617 euros for the sale of paintings. He spent this money on debt and financing a luxurious lifestyle.