The family of sculptor Alexander Calder have filed a complaint that Klaus G. Perls, the artist’s longtime dealer and friend, held onto tens of millions of dollars of the artist’s art after his death, and sold forgeries of the artist’s work.  The Perls family has asked that the claims be dismissed.  “It gives me no pleasure to talk about this,” said Calder’s grandson, Alexander S. C. Rower, but “there is just example after example after example after example of misdeeds.”   (more…)

The New York Times reports on the state of the auction market in mainland China, where rampant forgeries and a rapidly expanding marketplace have made the bidding experience a fraught procedure.  With a market that has grown to annual revenues of $8.9 billion over the past years, regulators are struggling to keep up.  “The market is in a very dubious stage,” said Alexander Zacke, an expert in Asian art who and head of online house Auctionata. “No one will take results in mainland China very seriously.” (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…)

A Chicago gallery owner has been sentenced to a 6 month prison sentence, with an additional 6 months of home confinement for the sale of fake artworks.  Alan Kass, 76, was also ordered to pay his buyers restitutions of up to $350,000.  “I misled people who, like me, enjoyed art,” Kass said in his court statement. “I disappointed my customers who put their trust in my knowledge. For this I am sincerely sorry.” (more…)

After months of investigation and court proceedings, Long Island dealer Glafira Rosales has plead guilty to the sale of over $30 million in fake artworks attributed to Rothko, Pollock, and others. Rosales also plead guilty to charges of fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion in a New York courtroom Monday.  “I agreed with others to sell works of art claimed to be created by various expressionist artists including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell, and to make false representations as to the authenticity and provenance of those works,” Rosales said. “These works of art were actually fakes created by an individual residing in Queens.” (more…)

Following the absolution of former Knoedler & Co president Ann Freedman in the ongoing criminal investigation over the sale of over 60 forged artworks, the former Knoedler head is suing dealer Marco Grassi for defamation.  Freedman, in her lawsuit, cites over 20 sources claiming she performed due diligence on the origins of the work, and that Grassi overstepped his grounds in recent comments to the New Yorker.  “A gallery person has an absolute responsibility to do due diligence, and I don’t think she did it. The story of the paintings is so totally kooky. I mean, really. It was a great story and she just said, ‘this is great.'”  Grassi said in the aforementioned interview.  (more…)

New York Magazine has published an exclusive interview with Ann Freedman, the president of the now shuttered Knoedler and Company, who has been exonerated of any criminal involvement in the fraudulent sale of 63 forged artworks through the gallery.  “The story was credible,” she says, speaking on Glafira Rosales’s mysterious seller, “Mr. X,” a fabrication she used to justify the sudden appearance of the works. “Dealers often do not know the specifics of origin or background, or how the art left the artist’s studio. You cannot turn the pages of an auction catalogue or museum publication without seeing a majority of the works labeled ‘private collection.’ The chain of ownership is often out of order and incomplete.” (more…)

Art advisor Lisa Jacobs has been accused of deceiving a wealthy client, skimming $1 million off the top of the sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s Future Science Versus Man, from the collection of the late collector Hannelore Schulhof.  The suit, filed by Schulhof’s son, Michael, seeks the return of the $1 million deficit, as well as punitive damages. (more…)

New arrests are expected in the ongoing investigation into the Knoedler Gallery, the New York Times reports.  The news comes after the indictment of dealer Glafira Rosales, in which the prosecuting attorney, Jason P. Hernandez, stated that he was contemplating further arrests.  The news comes after the announcement that Mr. Pei-Shen Qian, the artist who created these works, has left the country for China.  Both the prosecutor and defense attorney in the trial have also forecasted that the case will be resolved soon.  (more…)

Dealer Glafira Rosales, who was being held without bail in New York in connection with the sale of dozens of forged and fake paintings claimed to be works by Rothko, Pollack and Motherwell, was released from prison Monday under new bail terms.  A federal court in Manhattan set the new terms at $2.5 million, with $250,000 cash and four properties, which were promptly paid by the dealer.  Under the terms, Rosales is also prohibited from leaving the state, and will be monitored electronically. (more…)

A victim of convicted defrauder Marc Dreier has been awarded 18 artworks, valued at over $33 million, from Dreier’s collection, among them works by Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Roy Lichtenstein.  Dreier had given the victim a security interest in the works several years prior, in order to get their signature on forged promissory notes, which held a face value of over $110 million.  Other works from Dreier’s collection have already been sold at auction to help pay off his debts to other defrauded investors. (more…)

Long Island art dealer Glafira Rosales was arraigned this week in court, pleading “not guilty” to charges of selling over sixty fraudulent art works claimed to be by post-war masters Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, among others.  The prosecution also accused Rosales of hiding the proceeds (over $12.5 million in undeclared incomes) of the sales in foreign sales accounts. (more…)

Gerald Lee Jones, a former supervisor in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s admissions department, has filed an affidavit detailing the museum’s policy towards rewarding higher cashier receipts.  In his statement, Jones claims that museum employees who brought in lower admissions receipts, regardless of the museum’s “suggested” admission price, were rebuked for their performance, while cashiers who aggressively pushed for higher admission prices were rewarded.  “Cashiers are not only trained to avoid disclosing the truth about the museum’s admission prices; their compensation and their continued employment may largely depend on them not revealing it,” He says in court papers. (more…)

Brian Ramnarine, currently out on bail on the charges of forging a work by Jasper Johns, was arraigned on Friday for allegedly attempting a similar fraud with works by Robert Indiana and Saint Clair Cemin.  “He knows it’s illegal and he keeps on doing it,” Prosecutor  Zachary Feingold said. “He knows what he did was wrong. He knew he couldn’t do it and he did it anyway.” (more…)

In the wake of the multiple lawsuits brought against the Knoedler Gallery for sales of counterfeit art since the space closed in 2011, Forbes Magazine has published an article detailing the lack of oversight and due diligence that often plagues collectors when art and antiques are being bought or sold. “Sophisticated businesspeople would never do a business deal without asking questions, but somehow when they are buying art or collectibles, their common sense flies out of their head,” says Patty Gerstenblith, a professor of Art and Cultural Law at DePaul University. (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…)

Kevin Sutherland, the Miami pastor who was arrested last month for the attempted sale of several counterfeited works attributed to Damien Hirst, was indicted yesterday on grand larceny charges, to which he pleaded not guilty.  The pastor had allegedly attempted to sell undercover officers a number of fake Hirsts (one of which is pictured here) for $185,000.  His attorney, Sanford Talkin, claims that there is “more to the story.”

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