San Francisco real estate mogul Luke Brugnara has been charged with mail fraud following the aborted purchase of $11 million in works by Willem de Kooning, Edgar Degas, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso.  Brugnara reportedly purchased the works from a New York dealer with the intent of opening a museum, but never paid for the artworks, claiming he had received them as a gift.  When the dealer accompanied the works to California for delivery, she was astonished to find that the address he had given was not inhabited.  “Brugnara instructed the delivery personnel to leave the crates in his garage. The art dealer had never before seen anyone request art of such value to be placed in a garage,” writes FBI special agent Jeremy Desor. (more…)

The New York Times takes another look this week at new arrests in the Knoedler Gallery forgery case, and notes the number of participants, complicit or not, to perpetuate a major art fraud.  “If you asked me what the biggest factors were behind this thing succeeding so long,” says art historian Jack Flam, “first is that everybody was afraid to be sued. People give credibility to works unwittingly by keeping quiet.” (more…)

A Delaware judge has rejected Daniel Loeb’s lawsuit seeking to overturn Sotheby’s shareholder rights plan, which had prevented activist investors from owning more than 10% of the company.  “I find that the plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they have a reasonable probability of success on the merits of their claims,” Judge Donald Parsons wrote in his decision. “Therefore, I deny the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction.” (more…)

The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami has filed suit against North Miami for breach of contract, claiming that the city has allegedly ceased funding and maintenance to the museum as it pursues a merger with the Bass Museum in Miami Beach.   “The city’s neglect has put the very existence of our institution at risk,” says MOCA NoMi trustee Irma Braman. “And our current building has been an impediment to our services and mission for too long. We are dedicated to serving our public and we hope the city will move forward with us in a collegial and productive conversation so that MOCA can maintain a vibrant presence in North Miami and throughout the region.” (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 lawsuit by Daniel Loeb against Sotheby’s, filed over its attempts to prevent him from taking over 10% ownership in the company, has been fast-tracked by a Delaware judge.  “Here we have an uncommon rights plan that on its face discriminates between activist and passive investors,” says Vice Chancellor Donald Parsons, who presided over the telephone hearing. “It is sufficiently possible that the board is attempting to tilt the playing field for proxy contest in its favor and make for an unfair fight.” (more…)

Artist Xavier Veilhan and dealer Emmanuel Perrotin have lost a court case asserting Veilhan’s work was copied by artist Richard Orlinski, whose installation of several works in the French alps bear a strong similarity to Veilhan’s previous work.   “The court has rightly recognised the originality of Orlinski’s work,” said Orlinski’s lawyer, Julie Jacob. Regardless, Perrotin and Veilhan have stated that they may appeal the decision. (more…)

Sentencing for the convicted Knoedler Gallery defrauder Glafira Rosales has been postponed until September, following the March 14th filing of a secret court document with Manhattan federal court.  Analysts speculate that Rosales, who has already agreed to forfeit $33.2 million, which includes her Sands Point home and $81m in restitution, is negotiating with federal officials in building a larger criminal case for her co-conspirators. (more…)

The ongoing dispute between two members of the Cy Twombly Foundation appears to have reached a settlement, the New York Times reports.  Twombly Foundation President Nicola Del Roscio and Vice President Julie Sylvester had filed suit accusing fellow director Thomas Saliba and lawyer Ralph Lerner of valuing several Twombly works (held in their own trust) at a highly inflated $1 billion.  The settlement terms, while not all stated, involved Salbia and Lerner resigning their positions in the Foundation. (more…)

The heirs of Peggy Guggenheim have filed a lawsuit against the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, alleging that the foundation has failed to comply with the conditions of her gifts, and has placed her collection in storage to make room for various exhibitions in her Venice estate.   “They are totally disrespecting my great grandmother’s legacy… it’s appalling; it’s a big disappointment,” says Sindbad Rumney, the great grandson of Peggy Guggenheim.  “Basically… what we’ve [discovered] is that if you have the right amount of money and you have a collection, you can show it at the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice.” (more…)

A group of nine collectors have filed a lawsuit against the Keith Haring Foundation, claiming that the organization’s judgement of works in their collections has “wrongfully destroyed” their value.  The lawsuit, which seeks $40 million in damages, has been flatly rejected by the foundation.  Its lawyer, Michael Ward Stout, claims, “We believe that the allegations are not supportable, and we will address them going forward.”  (more…)

A New York judge has ruled that the lawsuit filed by collector Ron Perelman against dealer Larry Gagosian can proceed, following Gagosian’s request that the suit be thrown out.  While rejecting several of the claims regarding breach of contract and other complaints, the court ruled that Perelman’s fraud lawsuit will be able to move forward. (more…)

Collector and dealer Asher Edelman has filed a lawsuit claiming he has been victimized in a fraudulent deal for the sale of more than 100 works claimed to be by Picasso, Matisse, and more.  The lawsuit states that Swiss company Artmentum convinced Edelman’s company that a Japanese museum was seeking to sell $400 million in art, a statement that Edelman claims was wholly false.  “Each defendant, acting individually and in concert with each other, participated in an elaborate, fraudulent scheme in the guise of an international art transaction designed to deprive ArtAssure of hundreds of millions of dollars,” the lawsuit says. (more…)

A Virginia court has ruled that a Renoir purchased at a flea market for $7 must be returned to the museum it was stolen from in 1951.  Paysadge Bords de Seine, stolen from Baltimore Museum of Art, was discovered by teacher Marcia “Martha” Fuqua, and was valued at $22,000.  “The museum has put forth an extensive amount of documentary evidence that the painting was stolen,” Brinkema said, citing a 1951 police report and museum records. (more…)

A New York court has denied a motion to dismiss the case against Christopher Wool by studio Brand X, which is suing the artist over a series of unfinished prints he contracted through the studio.  Wool had reportedly originally made a deal to collaborate on the series with Brand X in exchange for one third of the works from the series, but allegedly tried to renegotiate when he felt the works would be worth more than originally estimated.  Wool has ceased work on the series “to get the deal he wishes he made rather than the one he did make” as court papers accuse.  “No evidence has been heard in the case yet… In due course, the true facts will emerge and Mr Wool and Luhring Augustine Gallery will be vindicated,” says representing attorney Roger Netzer. (more…)

Michael Werner Gallery is currently embroiled in a $1.35 million lawsuit with South Korea’s Gwangju Biennale Foundation over damage to three sculptures by James Lee Byars.  The works were chipped on the return trip, and attempts to collect insurance through a South Korean insurance company have proved futile.  “Unfortunately, risks are inherent in any loan, and it is devastating and embarrassing when anything like this happens,” said Massimo Gioni, who curated the 2010 event and went on to curate this year’s Venice Biennale. (more…)

The fraud lawsuit filed by the estate of Alexander Calder against the late artist’s longtime friend and dealer Klaus Perls has been rejected by New York State Supreme Court.  The ruling, announced this week, cited many of the claims in the case as “an incoherent stew of irrelevance and innuendo,” and Justice Shirley Kornreich went so far as to state that: “these allegations are so patently inadequate that the court can only conclude that they were brought solely for the purpose of harassment or embarrassment.”  (more…)

A lawsuit over the ownership of an Andy Warhol portrait of the late actress Farrah Fawcett has been settled in favor of her husband, actor Ryan O’Neil.  The lawsuit settles a dispute between O’Neal and the University of Texas in Austin, which had received the work from Fawcett’s estate, even though O’Neal maintained the work had been given to him as a gift from Warhol. (more…)

A Dallas collector is suing Sotheby’s auction house over the disclosure of what was supposed to be the private sale of a Mark Rothko.  Marguerite Hoffman, widow of soft-drinks bottling magnate Robert K. Hoffman, filed a lawsuit against the auction house when the work was resold several years later, and used her name heavily in the work’s marketing materials.   (more…)

Another lawsuit has been filed against the now-closed Knoedler Gallery, this time alleging that its dealers willfully sold a Malibu couple a pair of paintings attributed to Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning.  The federal suit is filed against the Knoedler Gallery, president Ann Freedman, chairman Michael Hammer and worker Jaime Andrade, along with dealer Glafira Rosales, who has just recently agreed to a plea deal in her criminal case.  “Defendants showed virtually no interest in the authenticity or origin of the works,” the lawsuit says. (more…)

The founders of the Dia Art Foundation have filed a lawsuit against the organization, as well as auction house Sotheby’s, in order to keep the arts organization from selling parts of its collection this month.  The sales, set to take place this week in New York, include works by Barnett Newman, Cy Twombly and John Chamberlain, and are contested by the founders’s claims that the works were intended to remain publicly accessible.  “Dia’s proposed auction of the subject works would remove the works from public access and viewing in direct contravention of Dia’s entire intent and purpose and of plaintiffs’ arrangements and understandings with Dia,” founders Fariha and Heiner Friedrichs say in the complaint. (more…)

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 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…)

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…)