Art collector spent $118K on 400-year-old woodblocks and got fakes, lawsuit says
An art collector in Pennsylvania spent about $118,000 on centuries-old woodblocks but received fakes, a lawsuit says. Now, the sellers in Hawaii are facing charges of fraud and money laundering.
Earl Marshawn Washington, 60, and his wife, Zsanett Nagy, 31, of Honolulu, are accused of selling counterfeit art online and illegally concealing the proceeds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a Tuesday, Jan. 17, news release.
McClatchy News could not find an attorney for the defendants.
The couple claimed to sell historical woodblocks and woodblock prints from the 15th to early 20th centuries, prosecutors said. Traditionally, woodblocks and prints are made by engraving a design into the surface of a block, an indictment filed Jan. 4 said. The uncarved wood remains and can be inked then printed onto paper or other materials.
Washington sold these types of woodblock art pieces on eBay from 2013 to 2016, prosecutors said. During this time, a physician and art collector in York, Pennsylvania, bought 130 woodblocks for $118,810 from Washington. The pieces were advertised as “rare” and “original printing blocks from the 16th and 17th centuries” from a family “inheritance” and “estate,” prosecutors said.
However, “several dozen woodblocks” were from the 1950s, the indictment said. The age of the other items is not specified.
Washington began selling counterfeits with Nagy in 2018, prosecutors said. Another person in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, bought a “1934” woodblock print from the couple. Around the same time, however, Nagy purchased printing ink and other art supplies, the indictment said.
Two art collectors in France purchased “16th century” woodblocks from Washington and Nagy, then resold these items to a museum buyer in Germany, prosecutors said. The French collectors paid about $84,350 for the items.
After each sale, Nagy received the payments to her PayPal account, transferred this money to her bank account and then withdrew the money in cash, court documents said. The couple did this to “disguise” the money’s source.
Washington, however, admitted to one of the French collectors that he “hand engraved” the woodblocks which were “not authentic,” prosecutors said. He promised to repay the money and send more woodblocks “he had carved to mimic historical artifacts,” court documents said.
Washington and Nagy face charges of “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering,” prosecutors said in the news release. Washington is facing additional charges of “bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Art collector spent $118K on 400-year-old woodblocks and got fakes, lawsuit says."
