More on Knoedler

Artnet has a good update and background on the Knoedler situation.  It is interesting to read of the continuing issues, charges and counter charges of Knoedler and some of its clients and collectors.  There appears to be close to 20 paintings which are coming under question, from many artists, including Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still.

Artnet reports

Fraud can be more nuanced, referring not only to willful misrepresentation but to unsubstantiated claims -- sales talk -- about the paintings in question. Freedman admitted in a court hearing in December to having told Pierre Lagrange, who in 2007 had bought an untitled work purported to be by Jackson Pollock, that the painting would be included in the supplement to the Pollock catalogue raisonne, when in fact she knew there would be no supplement. Freedman also told other buyers that experts had authenticated certain works when in actuality she had not always brought in experts (the artist Frank Stella was reportedly shown a number of these paintings, for instance) and that none of the artworks were fully vetted by the people most capable of doing so.

In addition to fraud, Lagrange also charged both Knoedler and Freedman with breach of warranty -- that is, he claims the painting he purchased is not what it was purported to be -- which is less difficult to prove. Rosales, who was the primary target of the FBI investigation, was summoned to the December hearing, which she attended with her lawyer and asserted her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.

Part of the reason that collectors are claiming that the gallery and Freedman had to know that the artworks acquired from Rosales weren’t right was that disputes over these paintings had been coming up for some time. In 2002, Jack Levy, a Goldman Sachs co-chairman, bought an untitled Jackson Pollock work for $2 million, later bringing it to the International Foundation for Art Research for authentication. IFAR would not attribute the painting to Pollock, and Levy demanded his money back. He was paid.

Source: Artnet