Art-forging couple go straight to jail
Kate Hagan
November 10, 2007
Quoted from article:
A TOORAK couple who funded their lavish lifestyle by forging Aboriginal art and selling it through auction houses for more than $300,000 spent last night behind bars after a judge sentenced them to three years’ jail.
Pamela Yvonne Liberto, 65, and her husband Ivan Liberto, 67, will serve nine months’ jail immediately before the remainder of their sentence is suspended, in what judge Roland Williams described as one of the toughest sentencing decisions he is likely to make due to their age and ill health.
The couple’s Malvern Road flat will be forfeited to repay the auction houses they defrauded, and the paintings they manufactured to look like works by renowned Aboriginal artist Rover Thomas will be destroyed.
