Art-swindler husband of missing Massachusetts mother-of-three is arrested for ‘misleading police’

Brian Walshe, 46, the husband of Ana Walshe, 39, who disappeared on New Year’s Day after failing to catch a work flight to Washington D.C. is a convicted art swindler 

Brian Walshe, 46, the convicted art swindler husband of the 39-year-old missing mother of three has been charged with misleading police in their search for his wife 

Real estate executive Ana Walshe disappeared on New Year’s Day after failing to board a flight from Massachusetts to Washington D.C., where she works. 

She has not used her phone or credit cards since disappearing and has not shown up for work. 

Her friends say that her disappearance is out of character, as she would never abandon her three young sons. 

Brian Walshe initially told police that he was asleep when Ana ordered a rideshare from their home in Cohasset to Logan International Airport in Boston however, police have now arrested him.

‘Police developed probable cause to believe that (Ana Walshe’s) husband, Brian Walshe, had committed the crime of misleading police investigators,’ reads a statement from the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.

They had initially said that Brian was cooperating with the investigation but things suddenly changed on Sunday night. 

He is set to be arraigned on Monday. It is not yet clear what additional information may be revealed at his arraignment. 

Walshe is expected to be arraigned Monday morning in Quincy District Court. ‘Additional facts may or may not be entered into the record at that time,’ police said.

Brian is seen driving away from the Cohasset, Massachusetts, home on Sunday where he, his wife, Ana, and their three children lived until the mom-of-three’s disappearance

A gray Volvo with the Walshe children was also seen heading out of the Walshe property on Sunday. It is believed that they were escorted away by close family friends or relatives

Earlier on Sunday, camera-shy Brian appeared to be driving a red Volkswagen away from the home in Cohasset – a 45-minute drive south of Boston – a week after his wife’s disappearance. 

The couple’s three children were given a ride in a separate vehicle, a gray Volvo, by people believed to be friends or family. Authorities appeared to have returned to the Walshe’s home on Sunday to dig through the contents. 

Detectives from Cohasset and the State Police had also been investigating in Washington D.C., where Ana worked for real estate behemoth, Tishman Speyer.

The mother-of-three boys between the ages of two and six, who is of Serbian descent, was reported missing in the small Massachusetts town of roughly 8,600 people on Wednesday by her husband and her employer.

The ground search for 39-year-old Ana has stopped a week after she was supposed to catch a flight to Washington D.C. from Boston Logan International Airport

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The couple owns a home in D.C. and Ana often commuted during the week for work her friends told various outlets. Ana had booked a flight to Washington for January 3 before she was ordered by her bosses to come in sooner for ‘an unexpected work emergency’. 

Last seen leaving her home at about 4am on New Year’s Day, Ana is said to have caught a rideshare bound for Logan International Airport in Boston, where her flight was taking off from.

Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said Ana never got on that plane. 

In fact, police have not been able to independently confirm Walshe got into or even booked a car service, or that she had had a flight booked for January 1

Friends also noticed that Ana’s normally active social media presence went silent since the start of the new year.

In a brief statement on her disappearance, Tishman Speyer, which Ana has been a part of since said February 2022, said: ‘We are actively assisting the local authorities in their ongoing search for our beloved colleague, Ana, and are praying for her safe return.’ 

A graduate of Cornell University, Ana had worked for various US real estate companies after obtaining a degree from the University of Belgrade. 

She’s described as having brown hair, brown eyes, and is five-feet-two-inches tall with an estimated weight of about 115 pounds. 

Brian Walshe (right), pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston in 2021 after being arrested a few years earlier for selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings to a South Korean buyer for $80,000

Ana, who is originally from Serbia, is a graduate of Cornell University and worked in he real estate development before her vanishing. Pictured with her husband, Brian, in Europe

Friends noticed that Ana’s normally active social media presence went silent all of a sudden. She regularly posted updates on her life and family on Facebook

Police said she’s left no digital footprint since she went missing, with her cell phone turned off and credit cards left unused. 

While police searched for Ana on Friday and Saturday, there was also a fire at a home in Cohasset she owned before it was sold in March for nearly $1.4million, according to online records.

State Police and local investigators determined the cause of the fire was accidental and is not believed to have had any connection to her vanishing. The current occupants escaped safely. 

Ana’s husband, Brian, is currently awaiting sentencing in a fraud case involving the sale of two fake Andy Warhol ‘Shadow Paintings’ to a South Korea buyer for $80,000 according to court records. 

Brian took the paintings from a friend and sold them on eBay, only to switch them out for fakes. 

In November 2016, Walshe put the paintings up on eBay for $100,000 each, after which art gallery owner Ron Rivlin agreed to buy them for $80,000. Picutred; Rivlin at his Andy Warhol gallery

Walshe got the paintings from his friend, who had recently bought them, and convinced him  he could sell them for a good price – but then he disappeared and his friend never received any money in return for them. Pictured: One of the fame Warhol paintings

In Walshe’s criminal case, it was November 2016 when an eBay user – Ron Rivlin, the owner of Revolver Gallery in Los Angeles – found Walshe selling two Andy Warhol paintings for $100,000 each, reported the Boston Herald.

Rivlin claims that his gallery is the the world’s largest gallery-owned Andy Warhol collection. 

The paintings Rivlin saw on eBay were from Warhol’s Shadows series, abstract paintings the pop artist created in 1978.

On the listing, Walshe also included a photo of an invoice from the Warhol Foundation, where he claimed he bought the paintings, and which allegedly showed he paid $240,000 for them.

Walshe allegedly told Rivlin he was selling the works at a great loss in order to pay for home renovations, reported the Herald.

Rivlin believed they were authentic and contacted Walshe in early November, arranging to purchase both paintings outside of eBay for $80,000. 

The pair signed a contract, which explicitly stated that Rivlin had three days to get a full refund, according to the Massachusetts DA’s office.

On November 7, Rivlin’s assistant flew to Boston to collect the paintings and gave Walshe an $80,000 cashier’s check, which was deposited that day.

The next day, Rivlin unwrapped the paintings and found there were no authentication stamps on the back from the Warhol Foundation and that the canvasses looked new.

Next, he compared the paintings to the photographs on eBay and determined they were different.

After concluding the paintings in his possession were inauthentic, he made repeated attempts to contact Walshe.

The Herald reported that phone records show Rivlin called and texted Walshe from November 8 to 12, all of which went unanswered. 

According to the DA’s office, when Walshe did reply, he made several excuses for not refunding the money immediately. 

After Walshe refunded Rivlin just $30,000 of the $80,000, the gallery owner said he had he had contacted the FBI.

Court documents show there have been various issues surrounding Brian Walshe’s sentencing, which initially was scheduled for home confinement and it is not clear what the current status of the case is.

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After buying the paintings, Rivlin realized the artworks he purchased were fakes, When Walshe wouldn’t  return all the money, Rivlin called the FBI. Pictured: One of the fake Andy Warhol paintings

On Saturday, video showed investigators furiously coming through debris that had gathered at her home’s pool after they had drained it as part of the search

Cohasset police, however, have repeatedly said Walshe’s disappearance and her husband’s case seem to be two very separate things. 

Massachusetts State Police and local police said in a joint statement that their ground search for the mother-of-three or evidence related to her disappearance concluded Saturday. 

A specialized State Police unit trained in search and rescue operations, three K-9 teams and the State Police Air Wing searched wooded areas near the Walshe’s home on Saturday. 

State Police divers searched a small stream and a pool but did not find anything, the statement said. 

The Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council also helped with the search. 

The desperate search has been continuing for a 39-year-old Massachusetts mother-of-three who vanished after on New Year’s Day and failed to catch her work flight to Washington D.C

Walshe was known to travel to Washington D.C. weekly for work and had booked a flight for January 3, not January 1, but cops say she may have been hoping to get an earlier flight

Police described Walshe as a woman with brown hair, brown eyes, five feet and two inches tall and weighing about 115 pounds and said she’s left no digital footprint since she went missing

Friends told NBC Boston that  Ana is a wife and mother to three young boys – with her social media platforms reflecting the life of a happy family.

‘Ana is a remarkable woman,’ her friend Peter Kirby said.

‘She’s a powerful executive, she’s a loving mom, she’s just loving wife, she’s one of the most remarkable humans we know, and we’ve very scared.

‘We miss her a lot and we’re just praying for her to be safe.’

‘Everyone that knows and loves Ana, we just want her home safely,’ Evan Turell, a friend of Walshe’s who used to work with her at a hotel in Boston, told Fox News. 

‘Her husband and her boys were someone she talked to every single day and the fact that she hasn’t been in touch with them is concerning and it’s not like her to not be in touch with anyone. It’s just really scary.’

Walshe is normally active on social media, according to friends, and often posts pictures of what appears to be her happy family life