More fakery alleged in New York
November 16 2012
Picture: TAN
Here's a really nasty case of contemporary art fakery colliding with dodgy business ethics. The above 'Mark Rothko' was sold to Eleanor and Domenico De Sole in 2004 for $8.3m by the now-closed but previously world-famous Knoedler Gallery in New York. Knoedler had bought the work in $950,000 from Glafira Rosales in 2003, who claimed to be the agent of a mysterious 'Mr X' selling his collection of previously unknown Pollocks, Rothkos, de Koonings, and so on.
Rosaeles is currently under investigation by the FBI for selling fakes. Knoedler recently settled another case of a 'Jackson Pollock' sold by them for $17m in 2007, which the gallery had also bought from Rosales, and which has been proved to be a fake. You can see where this is going...
Having heard of the dubious practices at Knoedler, the De Soles are now suing former Knoedler President, Ann Freedman, claiming that their Rothko is also fake. So far so obvious. But Freedman's defence is, outrageously, that if the 'Rothko' is a fake then it isn't her fault, but that of the De Soles' for buying it. The De Soles' were, the defence goes, foolish to rely on any Knoedler statement of authenticity, and anyway, since this was all in 2004 it is outside the statute of limitations. In other words, go hang.
It also transpires that one of the experts Knoedler said they consulted on the painting denies that he ever examined it. Laura Gilbert in The Art Newspaper has more details:
According to Knoedler and Freedman's motion to dismiss: “In the end, [the] plaintiffs seek to blame Knoedler and Freedman when it was plaintiffs and their art advisor… who acted recklessly: they purchased a multimillion dollar painting without asking a single expert for an opinion considering its authenticity (including any of the experts Knoedler and Freedman said had 'viewed' the work), [and] without seeing a single document reflecting the provenance (which they knew could not be entirely and indisputably verified by Knoedler)… ”
The De Soles argue they could not have known the facts of a fraud until they learned that the London hedgefunder Pierre Lagrange sued Knoedler and Freedman in December 2011, alleging that the gallery sold him a fake Jackson Pollock. The De Soles then hired a forensic expert to examine their painting who concluded that the “materials and techniques… are inconsistent and irreconcilable with the claims that Untitled was painted by Mark Rothko.”
As a dealer, I find the Knoedler defence deeply unsettling. Here's hoping the De Soles win their case...
