German police said they broke up a painting forgery ring that allegedly asked millions for canvases they claimed were by masters including Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt, including a painting that had hung in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum for decades.

Police last week arrested and then conditionally released the alleged ringleader, a 77-year-old from southwestern Germany, they said on Friday. He and 10 accomplices face charges of organized conspiracy to commit fraud with forged artworks .

In synchronized dawn raids on Wednesday, October 15, police descended on premises across Germany and Switzerland and seized documents, mobile phones and multiple suspected art forgeries, police in Bavaria, who led the operation, said in a statement.

Three out of some 20 counterfeit paintings confiscated by

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