Crime
Private detectives catch world-renowned art forger
Lucien Marchetti, wanted across Europe for more than 300 fake masterpieces, is in custody tonight.
Team photo
300+
Fake masterpieces sold to galleries across Europe over three decades.
The man Interpol called “The Chameleon” was taken into custody this evening after a private detective firm traced his forgeries back to a hidden studio.
Police had pursued Marchetti for eleven years without a single arrest. The detectives cracked the case in a single evening.
“We followed the paint,” one investigator said, declining to explain further. Marchetti's final canvas, an unfinished Vermeer, was recovered still wet.