Greece has introduced new legislation to tackle art forgery, establishing the country’s first comprehensive legal framework for the authentication and oversight of artworks.
The move follows a series of cases that brought the issue into public view. In 2024, authorities seized more than 120 fake works attributed to leading Greek modern painters, including Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas and Alekos Fassianos, that had been destined for sale through an online auction house. More recently, Athens gallerist Giorgos Tsagarakis was arrested on suspicion of selling fake artworks on live television, with investigators reviewing a large volume of seized material.
The new law, bill No. 5271/2026, approved by Parliament in late January, establishes a formal registry of certified experts responsible for verifying the authenticity of artworks. It also creates a dedicated Independent Department of Works of Art within the Ministry of Culture to oversee the process.
The legislation broadens the legal definition of art-related offenses beyond financial transactions to cover the creation, display, trafficking, and possession of forged works. Under the new provisions, forgery can carry penalties even where no sale has taken place.
Sentences range from six months to ten years’ imprisonment, with fines reaching €300,000 in the most serious cases. The law also provides for the destruction of works identified as counterfeit.
Not everyone is convinced the structure will hold. Achilleas Tsantilis, president of the Hellenic Association of Art Experts, questioned whether the ministry is equipped to operate such a system, warning that it may struggle to support a specialized authentication mechanism through internal expertise alone. He also noted that professional associations were not consulted before the bill passed, and that the existing system of court-appointed experts remains, in his view, the more established route for resolving disputes over attribution and valuation.
Greece already had legal provisions covering fraud and the protection of cultural property, particularly in relation to antiquities. The new framework centralizes aspects of the verification process and formalizes the role of accredited experts.
Internationally, the response has been cautiously positive. Art crime expert Richard Ellis welcomed the update but noted that forgery networks rarely stop at a single border. “It is the responsibility of every country to ensure that their laws are adequate to deal with any crime,” he said, “and to ensure that they are updated in line with current and future criminality.” Enforcement, he added, will continue to depend on cooperation across jurisdictions where laws and evidentiary standards diverge.
The changes come as Greek artworks continue to circulate through international galleries, auctions, and private collections, where documentation and provenance play a central role in establishing value and ownership, and where recent cases have exposed gaps in oversight.