Amid charges of plagiarism, Jeff Koons’s work Fait d’Hiver has been pulled from exhibition at the artist’s expansive Centre Pompidou retrospective. The work’s owner made the request for its removal, while the museum made a point of expressing its desire to leave the work in the show.  “It is essential that museums be able to continue to give an account of these artistic endeavors,” said president Alain Seban. (more…)

Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz, the suspected accomplice in the fraudulent art sales made through Knoedler Gallery, has been apprehended in Southern Spain, the Wall Street Journal reports.  Bergantino is expected to appear before a judge this week, who will decide on a potential extradition to the U.S. (more…)

A new lawsuit in the ongoing Knoedler Gallery investigation has drawn Swiss art historian and curator Oliver Wick of the Kunsthaus Zurich into the fray, holding him allegedly responsible for the sale of a $7.2 million forged Rothko to casino owner Frank J. Fertitta III.  Wick was paid a $300,000 consulting fee by the Gallery for his opinion that the work was original, and also showed the piece at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, where he was working at the time. (more…)

The recent surge of art forgeries and lawsuits over the attribution of works has had a chilling effect on the willingness of experts to offer their opinions on the authenticity of disputed works.  Cases like the recent Knoedler Gallery forgery sales and the following lawsuit by gallerist Ann Freedman have kept experts from vocally speaking out on the authenticity of work, even if their opinion may prevent a forged sale.  “If people were able to exchange opinions freely, cases like this would come to light much more quickly and you wouldn’t have a magnitude like this. Word would get out.”  Says Jack Flam, the president of Robert Motherwell’s Dedalus Foundation. (more…)