The Saanich Police Department says a Greater Victoria art dealer has been charged with fraud of $5,000 after a 2022 investigation found the dealer was allegedly receiving art for consignment and then cutting off communication with owners.

Calvin Lucyshyn, operator of the former Winchester Galleries in Oak Bay, was charged, concluding the investigation that resulted in the seizure of about 1,100 pieces of art that were mostly returned to their rightful owner.

On April 11, 2022, an art owner told Saanich police that they entrusted the dealer with four pieces of fine art, by two renowned Canadian artists, for consignment and potential sale at an art gallery in Oak Bay. Those pieces included Emily Carr paintings and one David Blackwood watercolour, according to a release from the Saanich Police Department in 2022.

After the gallery closed and attempts to contact the art dealer went unanswered, the owner got suspicious. A resulting police investigation found that the owner wasn害羞草研究所檛 alone, as several other people reported similar circumstances.

Saanich detectives executed search warrants at storage sites across the region in the following days. Those searches found 600 pieces in Saanich, more than 100 in Oak Bay and a Langford stockpile that eclipsed 300 works of art.

Police still have several pieces of art that remain unclaimed. Anyone who has consigned art through Winchester Galleries and have not had it returned, and believe it is in the possession of Saanich Police, contact them by email at art@saanichpolice.ca.

With files from Jake Romphf