Involved in several cases Swiss Post honors Alberto Giacometti with a stamp - designed by a convicted fraudster

Swiss Post is honoring Alberto Giacometti with a special stamp - but there is a shadow behind the motif: it was designed by a curator from the Engadin who was convicted of fraud.

Swiss Post honors the artist Alberto Giacometti with a new special stamp. But there is a controversial story behind the motif. The stamp with the famous "Homme qui marche" (German: the walking man) was designed by a convicted fraudster.

According to Swiss Post, the Engadine artist and curator C.G. worked on the project for around ten months, as reported bySonntagsBlick. On Wednesday, she appeared at the Kunsthaus Zurich, where the brand was officially presented. She described her work as "a small, popular and affordable work of art", the newspaper continues.

As has now become known, the Federal Supreme Court convicted the 49-year-old in mid-January for commercial fraudulent misuse. The sentence: two years' imprisonment, including one year unconditional, plus five years' deportation. She has apparently not yet served her sentence.

There is a dark side behind the facade of the electorate of Engadin with a German passport - documented in several court rulings. According to court documents, the artist was involved in several cases of fraud. Among other things, she defrauded a royal from Bahrain of at least 325,000 francs after he entrusted her with his credit card details. The "Beobachter" and "20 Minuten" also reported on this. According to the indictment, she caused expenses totaling over 700,000 francs for luxury goods and travel.

Total loss amounted to over 700,000 francs

The woman and the aristocrat met at the WEF in 2016. He entrusted her with his credit card details after she accompanied him on trips and took on organizational tasks. Between March 2018 and August 2020, she used the card around 1,600 times - including for furniture, clothes, alcohol and vacations. According to the indictment, the total loss amounted to over 700,000 francs.

The curator admitted the offences in court. She argued that she had been entitled to assume that the man had agreed to her expenses and referred to an outstanding payment of 20,000 euros. The Federal Court did not follow this argument and confirmed the conviction.

The woman paid back part of the sum. According to the court, the case is evidence that there was no financial free pass - even though the royal once commented on a debit with a heart emoji. The curator already has several previous convictions for similar offenses.

Swiss Post knew nothing of her past

Swiss Post emphasizes that it knew nothing about the artist's past, as the SonntagsBlick writes. Idea providers such as C.G. were not in a contractual relationship with the company when designing a special stamp and did not receive any compensation.

C.G. continued to appear in public after the ruling, for example at the launch of the Giacometti stamp or on the SRF "Tagesschau" program. Her lawyer criticized the criminal proceedings to the newspaper as unfair, as the injured party from Bahrain did not appear in court despite being summoned.