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Former Assistant to Jasper Johns Charged with Fraud

ASS-ISTANT

For selling stolen works.

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Carolyn Kaster/AP

This has been a year of weird art crimes: first the Nahmad family was implicated in an international gambling ring, then stolen masterpieces were reportedly incinerated in Romania. Now a former assistant to Jasper Johns has been charged with stealing works from the artist and selling them. The assistant, James Meyer, allegedly took 22 works between 2006 and 2012 from the artist’s studio in Connecticut, forged authentication papers, and brought them to a gallery in Manhattan, where they sold for a total of $6.5 million. He was Johns’s assistant for over 25 years. He is being charged with interstate transportation of stolen property and wire fraud.

Read it at the Wall Street Journal