A Spanish court has denied the U.S.’s extradition request for José Carlos Bergantiños DÃaz, citing poor health. Bergantiños DÃaz is wanted in connection with the Knoedler Gallery sales of fraudulent works, with some believing he masterminded the deal. (more…)
The National Court of Spain has decided to extradite Jesús Ãngel Bergantiños DÃaz, one of the dealers fingered in the Knoedler Gallery Art Fraud case. His brother, José Carlos, is also awaiting a decision on extradition. (more…)
Ann Freedman has reached a settlement in her $8.4 million case over the sale of a forged Mark Rothko. Freedman will still testify as part of the case against the Knoedler Gallery. “From the very beginning of these cases, Ann never wanted to keep a penny of the profits she made” says Lawyer Luke Nikas. (more…)
Coverage of the lawsuit between the De Sole Family and Ann Freedman continues in Art News this week, with Mark Rothko’s son taking the chair Monday, and noting that he does not authenticate any of his father’s work. “I believe I described it as ‘beautiful,’” Rothko said of the work. “I believe it was descriptive, but I didn’t want to go further than that.” (more…)
The Art News reports from the early days of the Knoedler Gallery trial, noting early testimony and opening arguments from both sides, including an interesting piece of evidence that director Ann Freedman had allegedly traded an authentic Rothko from her personal collection to fraudulent dealer Glafira Rosales for a fake one, and kept it hung in her apartment for 15 years. (more…)
The art forgery lawsuit between the family of Sotheby’s Chairman Domenico De Sole and Knoedler Gallery’s Ann Freedman is set to begin this week over the sale of a counterfeit Mark Rothko. “Banking on their unblemished and impeccable reputations, Knoedler and Freedman fraudulently warranted that the work was an authentic Rothko, when they knew or should have known otherwise, lied about their knowledge of the work’s provenance, and hid the true facts,” writes the De Soles lawyer. (more…)
With the first of the trials over the Knoedler Gallery’s fraudulent sales set to begin on January 25th, the Art Newspaper notes over twenty motions filed by both sides over the admissibility and reliability of various pieces of evidence by both Ann Freedman and collectors Domenico and Eleanore De Sole, who are suing for over $25 million in damages. (more…)
Knoedler Gallery and former director Anne Freedman has settled one of the lawsuits over its sale of a false Willem de Kooning for $4 million, the Art Newspaper reports. “We are pleased to have resolved the case with Howard, and we feel very good about the upcoming De Sole trial,” says Freedman’s lawyer Luke Nikas. (more…)
A New York judge has ruled that the lawsuits against Knoedler Gallery’s Ann Freedman will come to court this coming January, denying a motion by the former gallery director’s president to dismiss the case. “Plaintiffs have offered ample circumstantial evidence demonstrating that Freedman acted with fraudulent intent and understood that the Rosales Paintings were not authentic,” Judge Paul G. Gardephe of United States District Court in Manhattan wrote. (more…)
The lawyers representing Ann Freedman in her court case over the selling of forged works at Knoedler Gallery have sent an open letter to Art Market Monitor, taking the offensive on maintaining her innocence. “The criminals who committed these crimes have been charged. Ann Freedman is not one of them,” the letter reads. “The discovery in these cases has yielded tens of thousands of pages of documents. Not one proves that Ann Freedman knew these works were forgeries. It is the plaintiffs’ self-serving fairy tale that has allowed the case to continue for this long, but a trial will finally show the truth: plaintiffs just want to print money (their lawsuits request three times more than what they paid for the art), and Ann Freedman just wants justice.” (more…)
The Knoedler Gallery and former director Ann Freedman have reportedly settled three of ten lawsuits brought against them for selling fraudulent works attributed to abstract-expressionist masters. “We continue to vigorously defend the remaining litigation,” says Charles Schmerler of Norton Rose Fulbright, who represents Knoedler. (more…)
Long Island Art Dealer Glafira Rosales has been charged with tax fraud and the sale of several millions of dollars in forged art. Rosales reportedly failed to disclose over $12.5 Million she had learned form the sale of the works, made through the already embattled Knoedler Gallery in New York. Authorities assert that in many cases, Rosales had acted as a mediator for sales of work, although in some cases she reportedly fabricated the selling client, and kept the sales profits for herself. “As alleged, Glafira Rosales gave new meaning to the phrase ‘artful dodger’ by avoiding taxes on millions of dollars in income from dealing in fake artworks for fake clients,” Manhattan United States Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. (more…)
In a new twist, New York’s now defunct Knoedler Gallery, which has faced several lawsuits in the past few years for selling forged works attributed to Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others, is now being sued by its investor David Mirvish for failing to sell two authentic works. The gallery shut down after allegations of selling a fake Pollock for $17 million came to light, effectively breaching an agreement between Mirvish and the gallery to sell two Pollock masterpieces. “David Mirvish, one of the world’s foremost art collectors, fervently believes in the authenticity of the works and is determined to receive that to which he is entitled,” said Mirvish’s lawyer, Nicholas Gravante Jr. (more…)
New York’s now-closed Knoedler Gallery is being sued by a family trust for allegedly selling them a forged painting by Mark Rothko for $5.5 million. The gallery has faced similar lawsuits in the past, and is accused of withholding information that may have discouraged the sale, including telling the buyers that the work came from the secret collection of a “Mr. X.” “At all relevant times, defendants knew that the Mr. X story was untrue,” lawyers for the trust stated. “Indeed, defendants privately equated Mr. X to the fictional ‘goose that laid the golden egg.’” (more…)
The Getty Institute has announced that it will purchase the former Knoedler Gallery’s complete archives. Before the gallery was mired in lawsuits and closed its doors, it was an 165-year old institution whose client roster included Paul Mellon, Henry Clay Frick and Robert Sterling Clark. It exhibited and sold work by van Gogh, Manet, Winslow Homer, Frederic Church, John Singer Sargent, Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning and Barnett Newman, among others. The well-preserved archive includes stock books, sales books, photos and illustrated letters from artists and collectors. (more…)
‪‬Knoedler Gallery in second recent lawsuit regarding artwork authenticity as a South Carolina family filed a $25 million lawsuit on Wednesday after paying $8.3 million for Rothko’s ‘Untitled 1956,’ which they claim to be “a canvas that is unsalable and worthless” [AO Newslink]
‪‬The New York Times surveys the behind-the-scenes legal policies of the art authentication and insurance world, using the Knoedler Gallery’s forgery of Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Willem de Koonig, the deterioration of Matisse’s colors, an elbow accident with a private Picasso, and the re-appropriation lawsuit against Richard Prince to examine how to best protect a collection from fraud or damage.
[AO Newslink]
