Why Russian Art Is So Easy to Forge

On the morning of May 12th, more than 100 police officers stormed a house in Wiesbaden, Germany, as part of an enormous raid that spanned three nations and several warehouses, businesses, and art galleries. Their target: two men accused of masterminding a multimillion-dollar art-forgery ring. The arrested suspects, aged 41 and 67, have not been identified and are awaiting trial. But the nearly 1,000 fake paintings and documents discovered in May speak to the breadth of their alleged operation. German police say the men have sold more than 400 forged paintings attributed to Russian avant garde artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Alexej von Jawlensky. The works were sold for between four and seven figures, including two that recently went for a combined $3 million. Germany's federal police described the raid as an "important blow" to the international forgery market, though it's far from unique. Over the past two decades, police have seen a surge in fake Russian avant garde paintings, fueled by a combination of aesthetics, economics, and Communist-era politics. Paintings from this era — spanning from the 1890s to early 1930s — have proven relatively easy for forgers to copy, despite recent advancements in forensics and imaging technology. But why Russia, and why now?