A forger sold about 1,300 fake Giacometti sculptures over ten years, German police seized more than 1,150 suspect works in 2009, and a Stuttgart court gave dealers two-year suspended sentences

Alberto Giacometti died in 1966 without children. His widow Annette set up the Giacometti Association in 1986 as a placeholder until the foundation named in his will could exist. She died in 1993. Poor communication between the Association and the later Foundation delayed a reliable catalogue of his works, and a forgery ring worked in that gap. Forger Robert Driessen estimated he made about 1,300 fakes and sold them for about ten years to one dealer at motorway rest stops. In August 2009 police found over 1,000 bronzes and plasters in a Mainz warehouse; more than 1,150 suspect works were seized in all. Experts from the Foundation and the Association sat on the panel that judged them not genuine. The Stuttgart District Court convicted two Wiesbaden dealers and the wife of a Mainz dealer of fraud and forgery of documents; each received two years, suspended. The gang was reported to have earned about 8 million euros. In 2015 two more dealers stood trial; the verdicts are not confirmed^†. Driessen lives in Thailand and is reported beyond extradition^†.