Because he stole discarded sketches from the old paper of the artist Gerhard Richter, a man has to pay a fine of 3150 euros. The Cologne district court sentenced the 49-year-olds to the payment of 90 daily rates of 35 euros.

Richter had thrown the four pictures, which he thought failed, into the waste paper bin in front of his house. The pictures were packed in the courtroom with cardboard, foil and adhesive tape. "Now I have to be very careful," said Judge Katharina Potthoff, as she struggled with a pair of scissors on the flat package. After all, Richter's works are the most expensive of a living artist.

In his opinion, the pictures were unsuccessful. That's why he had not signed them, but thrown them into his waste paper bin. The court found it proven that the defendant had taken the sketches from there in July 2016 and wanted to sell them.

Even if the unsigned images on the legal art market according to experts are not for sale, they are not worthless, said the judge. The exact value can not be determined, according to the indictment, it is estimated at around 60,000 euros.

Despite disposal, the sketches were the property of the artist

The 49-year-old had testified at the police, the paper container had fallen over in a storm. Therefore, the pictures were not in the bin, but on the street. The accused said he "wanted to do something good" by collecting the fallen out papers in July 2016 and putting them back in the bin. He has found the four works - postcard-sized, over-painted with oil photos.

Robert Michael / AFP

A woman looks at a painting by Gerhard Richter in the Albertinum, Dresden (archive image)

After he claims to have heard no hearing at Richter, the defendant offered two of the pictures to a Munich auction house. Although the works initially accepted this, they demanded a certificate of authenticity from the Gerhard Richter Archive in Dresden.

For the director of the archive, Dietmar Elger, the authenticity of the works was equally clear. However, it had seemed strange to him that the pictures had no signature and no framing. The claim of the defendant that he got the pictures from an artist, who in turn received them from Richter as a gift, did not fit. "In this condition Richter would never give away his pictures."

However, according to the court, the sketches were still the property of the artist. "He had the will to dispose of the pictures," said the judge.

According to his studio, Richter himself has no interest in prosecuting the accused, but only wants the work to be destroyed. "He simply wanted his peace," reports the policeman who had heard the artist. "The whole thing seemed to bother him."