A Massachusetts man accused of murdering his wife was sentenced Tuesday to more than three years in prison in an unrelated art fraud case involving the sale of two fake Andy Warhol paintings.
Brian Walsh, who was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Anna Walsh, 39, was sentenced to 37 months in prison for selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings. Ta.
He was also ordered to pay $475,000 in restitution.
Prosecutors said a buyer found an ad for the two paintings on eBay in 2016. Two of the paintings are from Warhol’s 1978 series of untitled abstract paintings.
After paying Mr. Walsh $80,000 for the abstract painting, the buyer could not find the promised Warhol Foundation stamp of authenticity on the painting, prosecutors said.
The person also noticed that the canvas and staples looked new, and that the painting did not look the same as the one advertised on eBay, and concluded that the painting was not real.
The buyer tried unsuccessfully to get his money back.
Prosecutors said Mr. Walsh’s scheme began in 2011, when he sold two original Warhol paintings to a gallery.
From there, he acquired a replica of the painting in 2015 and sold it to a French buyer before attempting to sell two fake abstracts on eBay.
Ms. Walshe’s lawyers had asked for the deadline to be enforced. She did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr Walsh is accused of killing Anna Walsh, dismembering her and disposing of her body, and may still be on trial for murder.
The couple’s three children were placed in state custody.
Prosecutors say Anna Walsh, a native of Serbia, was last seen in the early morning hours of January 1, after having a New Year’s Eve dinner with her husband and family and friends at her home in Massachusetts.
Brian Walsh said he was called back to Washington, D.C., on New Year’s Day due to a work emergency. He did not contact her employer until January 4, when she told him she was missing.
The company, which first reported Anna Walsh missing to police, had no emergency, prosecutors said.
Anna Walsh split her time between the nation’s capital, where she works for an international property management company, and her parents’ home in the affluent coastal community of Cohasset, about 24 miles southeast of Boston.
Brian Walsh has been under house arrest, with some exceptions, while awaiting sentencing in his art fraud case.
According to a statement from prosecutors, suspect Brian Walsh spent several days starting on January 1 researching things like “dismembering a body and the best way to dispose of it”, “how long before the body starts to smell strange”, and “the best tools to dismember the body”. He said he searched online multiple times for things like “Hacksaw.” ”
On January 3, investigators said they found surveillance footage of a man resembling Brian Walsh throwing what appeared to be a heavy garbage bag into a dumpster at an apartment complex in Abington, near Cohasset.
Prosecutors also said Anna Walsh took out a $2.7 million life insurance policy, naming her husband as the sole beneficiary.
Miner said Brian Walsh didn’t need the money.
His wealthy mother gave the couple “tens of thousands of dollars,” she said.
