Picasso Net Art Scam

US art dealer accused of trying to pass off a fake Picasso faces a very real multimillion lawsuit because he hasn't returned the money to the buyer. Dealer Charles Locke, a one-time player in Atlanta's folk art scene, helped broker the deal in 2005 without meeting the seller, buyer, other middlemen or the actual drawing of "Sleeping Person and Squatting Woman," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday. The tangled Picasso transaction started with an e-mail image and its purported history from a California man and turned into a lawsuit from a New York dealer and statements by the artist's daughter that the etching was not a Picasso. Most of the actions leading up to the lawsuit occurred over the Internet. The Internet has made it much easier to scam dealers because "things are done on a handshake," Don Hrycyk, a Los Angeles Police Department art detective, told the Journal-Constitution. "Now, somebody doesn't have to physically appear," he said. Locke said he be selling his memoirs in a few years. "I'm writing it about the high end of the art world," he told the newspaper, "where people make statements and they have nothing to base them on." (For full source and article click the Headline). Irish Art