Knoedler Forgery Ringleader's Paintings Sold at US Marshal's Auction

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.