Melting? I thought you said mulching clocks! (art fraud)

Dali exhibition shut down after police nab possible counterfeits
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — An exhibition of Salvador Dali’s art was cancelled after police stepped in to confiscate the works, several of which they suspected to be counterfeit.
Collectors who had bought Dali’s print works earlier at the exhibition had suspected them to be fake and notified the police, which prompted an investigation, police said Tuesday.
“We also got many phone calls from a number of art connoisseurs who had been to the exhibition,” said Jyrki Seppala at the Helsinki Police.
The Helsinki exhibition, which commemorated what would have been the Spanish artist’s 100th birthday, was set up by Helsinki-based Artco Scandinavia. It began in late May and was due to end Wednesday. It featured Dali’s works from several periods, including sculptures and etchings.
Attempts to reach the company, which has an unlisted phone number, were not successful.
A preliminary evaluation to estimate the number of counterfeits at the exhibition done in collaboration with art experts will be completed in about a week, said the police spokesman.
All of the roughly 400 works displayed at the exhibition are under investigation.
“There is a whole range of works which are suspicious. For some of them, we might need expert help from outside the country. Others are obvious to us with just a magnifying glass,” Seppala said, without elaborating on investigators’ techniques.
Possible future charges related to the sales and the exhibition would concern fraud, counterfeiting, and copyright violations, he said.