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Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm awarded the Annette Giacometti Prize 2012

Paris, 27th April 2012 - For the second edition of the Annette Giacometti Prize for the rights of artworks and artists, awarded at the Paris UNESCO Headquarters, the jury selected German journalists Stefan KOLDEHOFF (Deutschlandfunk) and Tobias TIMM (Die Zeit) for their investigation into Germany's biggest-ever postwar art scandal.

The ceremony was held in the presence of Francesco BANDARIN, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture, on World Intellectual Property Day (April 26).

The Prize winners investigated art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi, who copied works by modern art masters (Léger, Derain, Ernst, Campendonk, Pechstein and others) and sold them in the international art market. By exposing the serious damages caused by the forger in a series of articles in German national newspapers, Koldehoff and Timm's investigation uncovered the financial systems that help make art counterfeiting a booming lucrative business, while highlighting the weaknesses of national legal systems, unsuited to the global artworld.

The book that Timm and Koldehoff co-wrote on the subject, Falsche Bilder - Echtes Geld Der Fälschungscoup of Jahrhunderts, will launch on May 15, 2012 (Editor : Galiani, Berlin).

The 10,000 euro ART©OPYRIGHT grant was awarded to Cranfield University and will help fund conferences on counterfeit art, held in museums and aimed at the general public.

On the picture - Background: Sarah Grant (2011 Prize-winner), Yan Toma (jury member), Marie-Magdeleine Lessana (jury member), Véronique Wiesinger (jury chairperson), Isabelle Vinson (jury member), Gérard Sousi (jury member), Claudia Andrieu (jury member) // Foreground : Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm (2012 Annette Giacometti Prize laureates)