MUSEYON BOOKS Smart City Guides for Travel, History, Art and Film Lovers
It is not every day that a painter who has been dead for the better of 200 years is involved in an international drug smuggling network but such was the case this weekend when Spanish police busted a crime ring that spanned two continents.
59 people were arrested and police conviscated 16.5 kilos of cocaine, EUR 1,100 in counterfeit notes and a painting that the gang was planning to sell for EUR 1 million by claiming it was by the Spanish master, Francisco de Goya. The drugs were mixed with cocoa powder and smuggled from Columbia in shampoo bottles the eventually funneled to Cantabria, Valencia, Valladolid, the Basque country in the north and Goya’s hometown of Madrid.
Right now, the origin of the painting is unclear and police reports state that the work is by an unknown painter. Whether this means that the painting by a different, undiscovered 18th century painter, a follower of Goya or is an expensive forgery, we have yet to find out.
