Museum worker swaps original artwork with fakes, buys Rolls Royce

The man used the money to buy a Rolls Royce and the watches and also repaid his pending debts. (Representational Image).

A German museum worker was convicted and suspended for 21 months for swapping an original artwork with a fake version and then buying a Rolls Royce and watches with the money he got after selling the original artwork, a CNN report said.

The report said that the 30-year-old man, an employee of the Deutsches Museum in Munich from May 2016 to April 2018, stole the "Das Märchen vom Froschkönig" (The Tale of the Frog Prince) painting made by Franz von Stuck, replaced it with a fake version and put the original up, for auction.

In addition to the suspension, the man was also fined 60,600 euros for stealing the painting. He had told a lie to the auction house, saying that the painting belonged to his great-grandparents or grandparents.

The painting was later sold for 70,000 euros, out of which the man got 50,000 euros after the deduction of the auction fee.

The man used the money to buy the car and the watches and also repaid his pending debts. "He said he acted without thinking. He can no longer explain his behavior today," the Munich District Court said in a press release.

"The defendant shamelessly exploited the opportunity to access the storage rooms. and sold valuable cultural assets in order to secure a high standard of living for himself and to show off," the court added in the release.

Additionally, the man stole three more paintings from the museum's storage facility and managed to sell two of those paintings "Die Weinprüfung" (The Wine Test) by Eduard von Grützner and "Zwei Mädchen beim Holzsammeln im Gebirge" (Two Girls Collecting Wood in the Mountains) by Franz von Defregger. His attempts to sell the third painting went in vain.