A Palm Beach art dealer was sentenced to more than two years in prison this week after pleading guilty to laundering money from the sale of counterfeit works by top-notch artists, including Andy Warhol, Jean- Michel Basquiat and Roy Lichtenstein.
Daniel Elie Bouaziz, owner of Danieli Fine Art and Galerie Danieli in Palm Beach County, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison followed by three years of probation. Bouaziz was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon to pay a $15,000 fine. Prosecutors dropped 16 other charges related to fraud and embezzlement as part of a plea deal.
Bouaziz pleaded guilty in February and admitted to knowingly participating in an interstate commerce of more than $10,000 from the sale of counterfeit artwork, which amounts to a violation of wire fraud. The Justice Department said Boaziz bought reproductions at bargain prices and sold them as originals for a markup, sometimes with fake invoices and provenance documents to trick customers into thinking the works were authentic. Bouaziz’s clients unknowingly purchased the fraudulent artwork “for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the DOJ said last October.
Bouaziz sold what he claimed were authentic and original works by Andy Warhol, priced between $75,000 and $240,000, in October 2022. After the client put down a deposit of $200,000, Bouaziz mixed the money with other funds and wired the money to other accounts. Bouaziz also tried to sell works he claimed were originals by artists like Banksy, Lichtenstein and Basquiat. When Bouaziz was first charged in October, the dealer had a fake Basquiat on sale for $12 million at Danieli Fine Art, according to the DOJ.
A restitution hearing for Bouaziz has been set for August 16.
Last year the FBI raided the Orlando Museum of Art during a Basquiat exhibition and seized 25 allegedly forged paintings attributed to the artist. A Los Angeles-based auctioneer admitted last month that he helped create and market the fake works.
