Paul Valere

A stooped, grandfatherly man walked slowly into a packed press conference here Friday and announced that he was the French painter Paul Valere, the artist whose very existence has been questioned by the FBI. "I am here," the elderly artist said, summing up what he and his gallery hope will be the last chapter in a remarkable tale that started as a simple art theft and blossomed into accusations of international art fraud.

A stooped, grandfatherly man walked slowly into a packed press conference here Friday and announced that he was the French painter Paul Valere, the artist whose very existence has been questioned by the FBI. "I am here," the elderly artist said, summing up what he and his gallery hope will be the last chapter in a remarkable tale that started as a simple art theft and blossomed into accusations of international art fraud.

In the beginning, the FBI believed that it was investigating a routine case of art theft. One of Carmel's largest art galleries had reported several paintings missing from its walls, and two agents arrived to take a report. They debriefed the staff and then segued to the showroom filled with thundering seascapes and bucolic scenes of French villages. That's when the surprises began.

In the beginning, the FBI believed that it was investigating a routine case of art theft. One of Carmel's largest art galleries had reported several paintings missing from its walls, and two agents arrived to take a report. They debriefed the staff and then segued to the showroom filled with thundering seascapes and bucolic scenes of French villages. That's when the surprises began.

Works by a French impressionist who paints under the name of Paul Valere regularly sell from $4,000 to $24,000 at the Simic Gallery in Carmel. But gallery owners say FBI agents are falsely claiming that Valere does not exist. Gallery officials concede Paul Valere is a pseudonym, but they say his works are produced by a real artist--a French impressionist who wants to conceal his identity.

A Carmel art gallery has released photos of a French painter to rebut FBI allegations that paintings selling for as much as $24,000 were created by an assembly line of artists promoting themselves as one person. Simic Galleries released 10 photographs of Paul Valere working in his studio in France, but gallery officials concede that they have no absolute proof that Valere alone created the paintings.