Spanish police have arrested a man whose alleged plan to sell a fake Leonardo da Vinci painting in Italy for 1.3 million euros was foiled when the work caught the eye of French customs officials.

Although the man had an export permit for the work – which was supposedly a Leonardo portrait of Italian aristocrat and military commander Gian Giacomo Trivulzio – it had expired, prompting customs officials at the Modane border post to contact Spanish police.

According to the export license, which is no guarantee of authenticity, it was a Leonardo valued at 1.3 million euros and was being transported to Milan for sale. Although the license was genuine, the attempt to export the work was illegal because it was no longer valid.

After receiving the alert in July 2022, officers from the Spanish National Police traveled to the French border to secure the painting, which was then sent to the Prado in Madrid for expert analysis.

“The experts’ report concluded that the work is a copy of the Milan portraits painted around the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries,” police said in a statement.

“The painting was probably painted with fraudulent intent at the beginning of the 20th century. Its value is therefore between 3,000 and 5,000 euros and it can be categorically ruled out that the painting is a work by Leonardo or another Italian artist of that period.”

A police spokesman said a Spaniard in his 40s had been arrested in Madrid in connection with the case.

“An export license is no guarantee of the authenticity of a work,” she said. “In this case, the license was used as a means to claim the painting was an original. When it was discovered that the license had expired, the painting was seized and an investigation was launched. Once the investigation revealed that this was a suspected case of smuggling, the arrest was made.”