Michael Little, a man from Renton, made $128,000 reselling glass trinkets he bought online.
He raked in all the cash by making a slight alteration to the little tchotchkes—he cut Dale Chihuly’s name into them.
As Seattle PI reports:
He faked supporting documents and concocted stories to explain how he’d come into a surplus of glass art; Little told at least one buyer a relative bought the art after hitting the lottery.
Little also posed as an art appraiser and authenticated his own bogus pieces, as well as faking “certificates of purchase” from a reputable Seattle gallery. One buyer, who paid $35,000 for 100 pieces, was prepared to donate the works to a Gonzaga University art museum.
Chihuly’s studio caught wind of the frauds in 2011, but Little kept at it for 18 months.
Yesterday, Little was sentenced to five months in federal prison. “This defendant was persistent and creative in his fraud that recycled ordinary glass into costly works of art,” U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said in a statement.
For some interesting juxtaposition, Banksy recently set up a stall in Central Park selling his original work anonymously through a Joe Schmoe street vendor for $60, despite some of the pieces’ market value of $249,000. Banksy made $420 that day, with only three people purchasing work.