A 68-year-old  gallerist from Weisbaden and a 42-year-old former director of that gallery were charged as the ringleaders of the scam. They are in custody while a 41-year-old man has also been charged as an accomplice in the crime.

The men are charged with offering and selling 18 artworks by Russian avant-garde artists such as Wassily Kandinsky. They sold 11 counterfeit works, pocketing about $4 million, according to prosecutors. Early reports said the ring could have forged and sold up to 400 artworks altogether since 2005.

Raids in Germany, Switzerland, and Israel yielded up fake artworks, forged documents and other materials that led investigators to the conclusion that the artworks were created in studios in Israel and Russia and then sold in Germany and elsewhere.