ARTS : Man Charged With Forging Picassos

GRENOBLE, France —  A man who faked two Picasso watercolors and used them to secure a bank loan was arrested today and charged with fraud, police said.

They said Yves Ferradou, 34, copied Picasso’s “Dalmatian Hound” painting and forged a bill of sale dating from the 1920s. A local auctioneer valued the painting at $45,000 and Ferradou used the estimate to borrow $26,500 from his bank. The fraud was exposed when Ferradou persuaded a friend to join him in trying the same trick, but a prospective purchaser had the second painting, the “Fruit Basket,” appraised and it was found to be a fake, police said.