MADRID, Spain (AP) – Spanish police said Thursday they had confiscated dozens of suspected fake Dali artworks that were to be put on sale in the southern town of Estepona.

In all, 81 pieces were seized, 12 of which might be genuine pieces designed by Salvador Dali and are very similar to pieces listed on Interpol and Spanish police records as having been stolen in Belgium, France and the United States, a police statement says.

The art included sculptures, lithographs, bas-reliefs, cutlery and textile pieces.

Police said one piece, a suspected fake Dali sculpture of an elephant with an obelisk-type saddle that measures some 10 feet (3 meters) in height, was to have been sold for euro1.2 million ($1.5 million).
Police said they would check with the Gala Salvador Dali Foundation, in Spain’s Catalonia region, to see if any of the confiscated pieces are genuine.

“The immense majority of the pieces are fake,” an official at the National Police headquarters in Madrid told The Associated Press. “But we particularly need to check the serial numbers of the 12 pieces that might be the stolen ones with the Dali Foundation.”

The statement said police arrested a Frenchman who had transported the pieces from France for exhibition and sale at a hotel in Estepona. The detainee, who was not identified, was charged with fraud and forgery. It was not immediately known if he had a criminal record.

Police said they had also found forged authenticity certificates.

The police official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity in keeping with department rules, said police had intervened before the exhibition and sale could take place. It is not known when the sale was scheduled.

Police said their suspicions were raised because the Frenchman had not sought special security arrangements, which would be a normal practice for a show involving pieces by such a famous artist. The operation was carried out by the National Police’s Heritage Brigade and police in Estepona at the end of last week.

Dali was born in Figueres, northeastern Spain, and died in 1989 at the age of 84. The extrovert mustachioed artist left a multi-million dollar estate, the exact value of which is difficult to calculate partly because of the widespread existence of forgeries.

In 1999, Spanish police found some 10,000 faked Dali lithographs at the home of an aide to Dali.

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