US federal authorities are investigating whether paintings and drawings sold by elite New York art dealers as the work of Modernist masters are in fact fakes, The New York Times reported Saturday. The pieces purported to be by artists like Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock, sold for up to $17 million apiece, were purchased through Glafira Rosales, a little-known art dealer claiming the works were obtained by a secret collector, the Times said.
Some of the works were then sold via Ann Freedman, former president of the illustrious gallery Knoedler & Company, which closed abruptly Wednesday after 165 years in the business. Others were sold by independent dealer Julian Weissman, who had represented Motherwell when he was alive.
On Friday, London collector Pierre Lagrange sued Freedman and her gallery, claiming the "Untitled 1950" Pollock painting he bought in 2007 was in fact a forgery. Knoedler said there was no link between the suit and the gallery's closing. "It's a sad day when a venerable gallery goes out of business when confronted with the fact that it sold its clients a $17 million fake painting rather than stand by their client," Lagrange's attorney Matthew Dontzin told the Times. In his lawsuit, Lagrange said forensic analysis found that two paints used in the work were not invented until after Pollock died.
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