A Miami art dealer was indicted in a federal court for selling fake Andy Warhol works, and could now face up to 10 years in prison.
Leslie Roberts, 62, allegedly sold the works at his Coconut Grove gallery, Miami Fine Art Gallery. He was indicted alongside Carlos Miguel Rodriguez Melendez, 37, who allegedly helped him sell these pieces.
Roberts claimed that the prints had been given the blessing of an authentication board run by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. But that board was dissolved in 2011 amid various legal actions, so it has not operated in more than a decade.
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A release by the FBI claimed that Rodriguez Melendez “falsely represented that he was an employee of a New York-based auction company in order to fraudulently authenticate the artwork in to conceal that the artwork was fake.”
He was arrested earlier this month on fraud and money laundering charges, and was later released on bond, according to the New York Times. Last week, various Floridian outlets reported that Miami Fine Art Gallery was raided by the FBI, but it wasn’t immediately clear why, since some of the documents related to Roberts’ were sealed until earlier this month.
In 2024, a family of art collectors sued Roberts, claiming that they had spent $6 million on faked Warhols, including works that depicted Marilyn Monroe, Debbie Harry, and others who repeatedly figured in the Pop artist’s screenprinted paintings. The family claimed that it realized the works were fake upon closer examination of emails purportedly from the Warhol Foundation that came from @andywarholfoundation.co addresses. In fact, the foundation’s website has a .org address.
While the legal filings appeared to offer substantial evidence that the works were fake, Roberts had previously touted his work with the Warhol Foundation. “One of my proudest moments was acquiring rare art from the Andy Warhol Foundation,” he told Artnet, speaking not to the website’s News arm but to its Artnet Gallery Network affiliate. “This milestone underscored our gallery’s dedication to curating exceptional works. Another standout moment is the joy of helping clients discover the art they’ve always desired, fulfilling their dreams and enhancing their collections.”
In that interview, Roberts touted a show that he described as “our biggest exhibition yet of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol pieces.”
Roberts has previously faced legal trouble before. He has found himself at the center of lawsuits over faked Romero Britto and Peter Max paintings. Following the 2015 Max lawsuit, Roberts received a 22-year prison sentence and was given three years of supervised release. Then, in 2018, after he allegedly tried to negotiate the sale of a $75,000 Basquiat painting, that release was revoked, and he briefly ended up back in prison.
The Miami New Times has published an extensive overview of Roberts’s career, including his various legal woes.
Of the recent case involving the fraudulent Warhols, a lawyer for Roberts told the Times that the art dealer “vehemently maintains his innocence and looks forward to the opportunity to present the full facts in a court of law.”