A Russian naval officer spent years forging and selling works by renowned Soviet sculptor Ernst Neizvestny

Ernst Neizvestny was the most famous Soviet sculptor of the second half of the 20th century, known for expressive, symbolism-laden works that sometimes edged into abstraction.

His career flourished during the Khrushchev Thaw, when socialist realism was no longer strictly enforced.

But by 1962, after Nikita Khrushchev denounced an exhibition at the Moscow Manege, Neizvestny found official channels all but closed to him: he was expelled from the Artists’ Union and stripped of his studio.

Paradoxically, it was Neizvestny who designed the monument on Khrushchev’s grave at Novodevichy Cemetery.

That was among his last works in the Soviet Union; in 1977, he emigrated to the United States for good. ...