Ramon Cernuda is a Miami art dealer who knows his Cuban art. According to the Miami Herald, he was approached by a 78-year-old man who offered to sell him seven paintings for $85,000. He recognized the works as similar to ones reported stolen last month from a storage facility. Those 32 paintings have not been confirmed as authentic but Cernuda, who set up a sting to capture the pair offering the paintings when he realized the works were listed on an FBI report of stolen art, says at least four of the works offered to him are fakes:
Cernuda said he would have considered buying one of the paintings under different circumstances. Had one of them — “Ravanet” 1969 by Domingo Ravanet — been real, it would be worth $10,000, he said. The abstract oil-on-canvas painting used fluid greens, browns and oranges and “gives you the sense you’re imagining a dream,” Cernuda said. All seven paintings, also by Cuban modernist vanguards from the mid 1900s, would be worth about $90,000 if they were all originals, he said.
Probe into Theft of Cuban Paintings Continues (Miami Herald)
