Elite US art dealers have fallen under suspicion of selling fake reproductions of Modernist masters, The New York Times reports. Among the alleged forgeries are works attributed to Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
US police are investigating whether artworks purchased through an independent art dealer Glafira Rosales were fakes. The paintings she sold for up to $17 million each over the past years.
The suspicions around the works that came from Rosales began to appear several years ago, when a Finnish Art Gallery claimed back its $650,000 dollars for a fake Robert Motherwell work purchased through Julian Weissman, who in turn got the painting from Rosales. The money was compensated to the Finnish Gallery in 2009, yet the scandal forced other buyers to double check the authenticity of artworks purchased through Rosales.
Another forgery story arose recently in London. Collector Pierre Lagrange sued one of the most respectable US galleries Knoedler Company, over the Untitled 1950 Pollock painting he bought in 2007 for $17 million. It turned out to be a fake.
Independent experts and the FBI are currently questioning authenticity of at least 15 other works brought to the art market by Rosales over the past 20 years. The truth is yet to be established. Lawyer of the notorious art dealer, who is currently under investigation, said she “had never intentionally or knowingly sold artwork she knew to be forged.”