The NY Times is reporting that Knoedler Gallery in New York City is being sued again. For past references click HERE and HERE. This time the suit is based upon the 2004 purchase from Knoedler of Mark Rothko painting by a collector for $8.3 million. The suit is asking for $25 million. According to the article a forensic analysis of the painting reveals several inconsistencies.
The NY Times reports
Source: NY Times
It is the second multimillion-dollar civil suit involving a painting believed to be forged that buyers have brought against Knoedler since the gallery abruptly closed four months ago.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating at least two dozen paintings supplied by a Long Island dealer named Glafira Rosales and sold by Knoedler and another New York dealer. The works are attributed to Modernist masters like Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and others, but several experts have called them forgeries. One, purportedly by Robert Motherwell, has been branded a forgery in a court settlement.
According to the new lawsuit, Domenico and Eleanore De Sole bought a Rothko painting, “Untitled 1956,” in 2004 for $8.3 million from Knoedler’s former president, Ann Freedman. A forensic analysis of the painting commissioned by the De Soles found that some of the materials and markings were “inconsistent and irreconcilable with the claim” that the painting was done by Rothko, according to the suit, which also names Ms. Freedman as a defendant.
The De Soles contend that Ms. Freedman misled them about whether “Untitled 1956” was going to be included in the definitive compendium of Rothko’s work known as the catalogue raisonné, and that she gave them a written assurance that several experts, including Rothko’s son, Christopher, had authenticated the painting when they had only briefly viewed it.
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