Lawsuit Alleges Art Market Conspiracy
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The owner of a silkscreen self-portrait of Andy Warhol sued the late artist’s estate yesterday, saying it conspired for 20 years to control the market for Warhol’s work with authority to stamp “DENIED” on any work it claimed was fake.
In a $20 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Joe Simon-Whelan said the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. and the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board force owners of each Warhol work to sign contracts giving them a “perpetual veto right over it s authenticity.”
He accused them of engaging in a two-decade scheme of fraud, collusion, and manipulation that caused them to twice deny the authenticity of his 24-by-20-inch silkscreen even though it had been authenticated several times before by the estate or its related entities.
As a result, anyone who buys a Warhol painting that has been authenticated by the board risks having the authenticity revoked at any time, says the lawsuit, which seeks at least $20 million in damages and class action status.
Mr. Simon-Whelan, a American film writer and producer who lives in London, accused the foundation and the board of providing “a facade of corporate credibility obscuring a deeply corrupt enterprise that enables defendants to benefit from Warhol’s art and reputation.”
He said they had adopted a policy of rejecting as many works as possible to induce artificial scarcity in the market for Warhol’s creations.
The foundation’s chief financial officer, K.C. Maurer, said yesterday she had not seen the lawsuit and couldn’t comment. A telephone message left with the authentication board was not immediately returned.
Mr. Simon-Whelan said he bought the silkscreen, called “Double Denied” in his court papers, for $195,000 in 1989, two years after Warhol died.
The work was one of several created in 1964 at Warhol’s direction from an acetate personally created and chosen by him, the lawsuit said. It was going to be sold in December 2001 for $2 million until the authentication board without explanation stamped “DENIED” on the back of it in red ink, which bled through to the front, according to the lawsuit.
Mr. Simon-Whelan submitted it a second time in 2003 only to get rejected again, the lawsuit said.
