Up for auction: Real art, owned by a seller of forgeries

New York

FOR years, the Gaston & Sheehan auction house, family-owned and located in Pflugerville, a small city in Central Texas, has been a trusted place used by federal marshals to sell the many things that were seized in criminal cases - jewellery, some impounded vehicles and occasionally fine wine and sometimes paintings or antiques.

But Gaston & Sheehan has rarely tried to compete with large art auction houses. So it was a bit unusual when it took in nearly US$5 million from the sale last year of 236 works of art, including a few by the likes of Warhol and Motherwell.

What made the works distinctive was their lineage: All had been seized fr…