In November, we wrote about increasing scrutiny of multiple Old Master artworks that have recently come under suspicion as potential forgeries.  And in January, we posted about a federal lawsuit Sotheby’s has filed in connection with the scandal; in that suit, Sotheby’s seeks to recover sale proceeds from a collector who sold one of the fake works at a 2012 Sotheby’s auction.  Now, the fallout continues; in February, Sotheby’s filed a second suit over another artwork, this time in the U.K. court system; as with the first suit, the auction house’s goal is to claw back the proceeds of a sale of a work sold through Sotheby’s that has since been shown to be a fake.

In November, we wrote about increasing scrutiny of multiple Old Master artworks that have recently come under suspicion as potential forgeries.  Now, federal litigation has commenced in connection with the scandal, as Sotheby’s attempts to recover sale proceeds from a collector who sold one of the fake works at a 2012 Sotheby’s auction.

Andrew Hall, a hedge-fund manager and art collector, filed suit against Lorettann Gascard, a former art-history professor at Franklin Pierce University, and her son, Nikolas, alleging that the Gascards sold him twenty-four artworks by the famed artist Leon Golub that actually were forgeries. The Gascards are now firing back that Hall alone should be held responsible for his failure to conduct adequate pre-sale diligence; a common refrain among accused fraudsters looking to cast blame back on sophisticated art collectors, like Hall.

The art world is watching with concern the unfolding story of a fake Frans Hals painting; facts are still developing as of this writing, but it’s possible that the work may not be an isolated forgery but rather the harbinger of a larger group of well-executed fakes that could shake up the Old Master market.

The South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has passed new legislation imposing strict regulations on art transactions.  The law is intended to increase transparency in the art market by requiring more documentation, and establishing regulatory bodies to oversee the authentication of artworks and investigation of forgeries.  The law may be implemented as early as August 2017.

Two pending cases present opposite but equally curious issues of art authentication by a living artist.  In one, the artist Peter Doig is being sued because he disavowed authorship of a work that a collector says is by Doig; in the other, an artist claims authorship over works that another man claims to have forged.  Both cases pose interesting questions about who, if not the artist, is the final say on whether an artwork is by the artist’s hand.

After much legal wrangling, a jury heard testimony last month in the first civil trial arising out of the art forgery scandal that took down one of New York’s most prominent galleries.  The story began in 2011 when word spread that, over the course of more than a decade, the once-venerable Knoedler Gallery had sold about $60 million worth of artworks—purported to be by Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko, de Kooning, and other giants of the Abstract Expressionist movement—that later turned out to be forgeries.  Since then, more details have emerged.

This blog has written often about the Knoedler scandal, which exploded in 2011 when a once-venerable art gallery closed following revelations that, over the course of more than a decade, it had sold about $60 million worth of artworks—purported to be by Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko, de Kooning, and other giants of the Abstract Expressionist movement—that later turned out to be forgeries.  Our previous posts contain more detail, but in short, the works all came to Knoedler through a Long Island art dealer, Glafira Rosales, who claimed to represent an anonymous collector liquidating a collection of previously-unknown masterworks.  It turned out that the seller was a fiction, and the works were actually created by a little-known artist in Queens at the behest of Rosales (who in 2013 pled guilty to a litany of federal crimes).

A recent unpublished opinion from a Michigan state appellate court touches on recurring and important themes in recent art-law cases:  the degree to which buyers may rely on a dealer’s representations about a work of art, and the degree of pre-sale diligence required by buyers. See King v. Park West Galleries, Inc., No. 314188 (Mich. Ct. of App., Dec. 2, 2014).

In the last few months, three different lawsuits have been filed that highlight some of the legal complications involved in seeking, offering, or relying upon authentication of works of art.  We intend to follow closely each of these cases, and other important legal developments concerning art authentication.

This firm’s attorneys were involved in the very first suit arising out of the infamous forgery scandal against the now-defunct Knoedler Gallery. Since then, this blog has covered ongoing developments in the strange story of a once-venerable art gallery’s involvement in the sale of dozens of paintings masquerading as works by twentieth-century masters like Pollock, Rothko, and de Kooning.  The works were in fact created by a little-known artist working in Queens, and marketed by Long Island art dealer Glafira Rosales, who has since pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges arising out of the scheme.

From 1954 until his death in 1976, famed sculptor Alexander Calder was represented by Manhattan dealer Klaus Perls.  Over the course of more than two decades, the pair forged a close friendship as well.  Their contributions to the art world are formidable; Calder’s groundbreaking mobile works sell for millions of dollars, while Perls was a highly respected dealer and collector who donated more than $60 million worth of masterworks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art prior to his death in 2008.  Now, both men are gone, and their families are in court amid allegations that Perls defrauded Calder’s estate and sold dozens of fake Calder works.

Our attorneys were involved in the very first suit arising out of the infamous forgery scandal against the now-shuttered Knoedler Gallery. And this blog has covered multiple chapters since, detailing along the way the remarkable twists and turns in the dramatic tale of Knoedler’s involvement in the sales of dozens of works purportedly created by some of the top artists of the twentieth century—including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Willem de Kooning—that have since been revealed as fakes.

The art world remains riveted by the still-unfolding scandal involving the once-renowned Knoedler Gallery.  To recap, over the course of more than a decade, Knoedler solddozens of works of art purportedly created by some of the most sought-after artists of the twentieth century—works that have since been widely discredited as fakes.  A Long Island art dealer named Glafira Rosales—who has now pleaded guilty, among other things, to charges of wire fraud, filing false tax returns and money laundering—allegedly told the Knoedler Gallery at the time that she represented an anonymous collector who was gradually liquidating his late father’s remarkable art collection.

James Meyer worked as an assistant to famed contemporary artist Jasper Johns for a quarter of a century.  Meyer, himself an artist, observed Johns at work, learned about his techniques, and witnessed the trajectory of a remarkable artistic career as Johns became one of the most well-known and sought-after artists of our time.  Johns, now 83, was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama in 2011, and his works have commanded stratospheric prices (one work, Flag, sold at Christie’s in 2010 for $28.6 million).

In July 2010, the New Yorker published an article about Peter Paul Biro, an art expert who has made a name for himself by using forensic techniques to authenticate artworks.  Mr. Biro, displeased with the magazine’s portrayal of him and his methods, brought claims for libel (i.e., defamation through written statements) against the writer, David Grann, and the magazine’s parent company, Condé Nast.