A Massachusetts man charged with killing his wife was sentenced to a little more than three years in prison in an unrelated case in which he sold fake Andy Warhol paintings, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Brian Walshe, 49, was sentenced Tuesday to 37 months, or three years and one month, in what the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston called “a years-long, multi-faceted art fraud scheme.”
He pleaded guilty in 2021 to one count each of wire fraud, interstate transportation for a scheme to defraud and unlawful monetary transaction, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Walshe in March 2023 was indicted on state counts that include first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the death of his wife Ana Walshe.
Ana Walshe was last seen New Year’s Day of 2023, reportedly at her home in Cohasset, police have said. A criminal complaint alleges that Brian Walshe killed his wife that day and at some point disinterred, removed or conveyed her body or remains.
Ana Walshe’s body has never been found.
The art fraud case dealt with two abstract paintings that Walshe had purported to be authentic Warhol “Shadows,” which he advertised on eBay in 2016. He eventually sold them, outside of the website, for $80,000, federal prosecutors said.
The real Warhol “Shadow” paintings belonged to the family of a fellow classmate of Walshe’s who he met when