The NY Times has reported that a judge has dismissed portions of a law suit brought by art authenticator/forensic examiner Peter Paul Biro against the New Yorker magazine. If you recall, the New Yorker ran a rather unflattering article on Biro (Click HERE for a link to the article and HERE for background on the suit).
The New Yorker had sought to have the full suit for libel dismissed, so there will be a portion of the suit which will proceed.
The Courthouse News Service also has a good report on the suit. Click HERE to read. It states the judge dismissed 20 of the 24 charges raised in the Biro suit.
The NY Times reports
Source: The NY Times
The 16,000-word article about art authentication was published in July 2010 and written by David Grann. In it, Mr. Grann questioned Mr. Biro’s method of matching fingerprints on paintings to the artists who created them.
Although Judge J. Paul Oetken in his decision on Tuesday threw out several of Mr. Biro’s charges against Advance Publications, which owns The New Yorker, he gave Mr. Biro the opportunity to argue in court that a few sentences in the article were libelous.
“The Article as a whole does not make express accusations against Biro, or suggest concrete conclusions about whether or not he is a fraud. Rather, it lays out evidence that may raise questions, and allows the reader to make up his or her own mind,” the judge wrote in his opinion. “At the same time, there can be little doubt that even a publication that, on the whole, merely raises questions has the potential to have serious consequences on a plaintiff’s reputation.”
In response to the decision, The New Yorker issued a statement: “We are gratified that Judge Oetken has already dismissed the vast bulk of Mr. Biro’s claims, and we are confident that we will prevail.”
Mr. Biro could not be reached for comment.
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