1. Knoedler Gallery: Fakes And Negligence
You would think a gallery with the blue chip reputation of Knoedler would know a real Rothko and Pollock from a cheap Chinese fake – not the case. An art dealer who sold counterfeit paintings by important Abstract Expressionist artists to several top New York collectors was indicted for fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. Glafira Rosales, 56, pleaded guilty to charges of selling more than 60 bogas works by artists including de Kooning, Pollock, Motherwell and Rothko between 1994 and 2009, at a cost of $60.2 million, or much more as we will never know! After vigorously fighting claims that they knowingly sold a string of fake Abstract Expressionist paintings, the now out of business Knoedler Gallery and its former director Ann Freedman have quietly settled three of the ten lawsuits brought against them by angry buyers. Could the recent settlements be a prelude to putting the six other suits to rest as well? No one has gone to jail over this yet???