Disgraced
dealer Glafira Rosales may have pleaded guilty in 2013 to selling forged
paintings to the tune of some $80 million, but her known ties to fakes didn't
stop the US government from quietly selling artworks from her inventory at
Texas's Gaston & Sheehan auction house this spring in a sale simply titled
"US Marshals Service National Collectibles – Eastern District of New
York."
The online
auction, held in March and April, included pieces by Louise Lawler, Sean
Scully, Jules Olitski, Ad Reinhardt, Kenneth Noland, and Andy Warhol, all of
which had been seized by US Marshals. Gastom & Sheehan is the national
auction contractor for the US Marshals.
Rosales's
forgeries were created by Pei Shen Qian, an elderly Chinese artist based in
Queens. He has since returned to his native country, presumably to avoid
prosecution for his role in the forgery ring.
The
auction's lots did not include any works by Pollock, Rothko, or Robert
Motherwell—the artists of which Rosales has admitted to selling forgeries.
The
top-selling works at the Texas auction house were Richard Pousette-Dart's Le
Bijou (1957) at $325,100, and a abstract 1947 canvas by Reinhardt, which sold
for $300,100. Warhol's Heaven and Hell Are Just One Breath Away fetched
$170,100.
