Glafira Rosales, the Long Island dealer who is at the center of an $80-million art fraud scandal, pleaded guilty in federal court in downtown Manhattan this morning to nine counts including wire fraud, tax evasion, and knowingly selling fake art. Rosales, who remains free on bail, is scheduled to be sentenced six months from now, in March 2014. She faces a maximum of 99 years in jail on the combined counts. According to a press release from the U.S. attorney's office, she also agreed to forfeit $33.2 million, including her home in Sands Point, New York, and to pay restitution in an amount not to exceed $81 million.
Rosales, who is petite with long, dark hair, was dressed in a dark pinstriped suit, and flanked by her attorneys. She answered quietly — at times almost inaudibly — to numerous questions from Judge Katherine Polk Failla, who sought to ensure that Rosales understood the implications of her guilty plea. Among other things, judge Failla explained to Rosales that there is no parole in the federal system and no option for early release, and added that among the possible penalties are “adverse immigration consequences” — Rosales was born and Mexico and is now a U.S. citizen — including the possibility of “denaturalization or deportation.” She also warned that once the guilty plea was accepted by the court, there would be no opportunity to withdraw it.
A hush fell over the courtroom when judge Failla requested that Rosales explain, in her own words, why she believes she is guilty of the charges alleged by the U.S. Attorney’s office. Speaking rapidly but with a shaky voice, Rosales admitted that from about 1996 until 2009 she had “falsely represented authenticity and provenance” on works sold to Knoedler Gallery and Julian Weissman Fine Art as being works by abstract expressionists including Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell. She admitted that the works were “actual fakes created by an individual residing in Queens.”
Rosales, who could be heard crying, had to be stopped several times because her remarks were not clear to the court reporter. Judge Failla asked her to speak louder and more slowly. At the end of the proceeding, after the judge left the courtroom, reporters gathered near Rosales and her attorneys. She stood with her back turned to the room, crying and dabbing her eyes. Rosales’s attorney Steven Kartagener did not speak to reporters at the plea hearing.
With millions of dollars at stake and high-profile art names involved, the event had a bit of the air of a media circus. Cameramen stationed in front of the courthouse swarmed around the building when they realized Rosales and her attorneys were exiting through a side door (this was not deliberate but because the front security screening area was not in service). As cameras started snapping away Rosales looked down, gripped both her attorney’s arms, and walked off down the street.
