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Fraudsters' art on sale to pay back creditors

March 10, 2016 11:54
Works by Jacobo Azagury, including this view of Gibraltar, are being sold to help repay £29 million
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Paintings owned by three Jewish brothers convicted of fraud are being sold off to help pay back creditors owned £29 million.

The Marrache brothers, members of a well-known family in the Gibraltar Jewish community, were jailed in 2014 for conspiracy to defraud business clients.

London-based insolvency practioners CVR have been appointed to liquidate the brothers' possessions, including houses and offices worth millions of pounds, and are now trying to find buyers for a collection of 57 paintings by Gibraltar Jewish artist Jacobo Azagury.

CVR partner Adrian Hyde said: "We're inviting people to make offers. The collection includes a large part of Azagury's output - from early sketches, to pastel studies and detailed oils. We expect interest from individual collectors, galleries and the corporate world."

The Marraches' conviction after a 10-month trial - the longest in Gibraltar's history - was the culmination of over four years of investigation by the authorities.

Mr Hyde said almost all of the brothers' property had been traced and was being sold off.

"There's a 1960s classic Rolls Royce Phantom we haven't been able to track down - that's probably in a garage in Spain somewhere," he said.