Displaying items by tag: knoedler & co.

Disgraced gallery Knoedler & Co. is at the center of two new lawsuits. The first suit was filed by Los Angeles’ Manny Silverman Gallery and Richard Feigen’s gallery in New York. The two dealers are asking to be repaid $1,050,000 for a forged Clyfford Still painting that was sold in a three-way transaction with Knoedler in 2000. The second suit was filed by Los Angeles collectors Martin and Sharleen Cohen, who bought two works, one by Mark Rothko and another by Willem de Kooning, both of which turned out to be forgeries. The couple is demanding to be repaid $475,000 plus interest for the two paintings.

All of the works were part of a trove of fake paintings supplied to Knoedler & Co. by Long Island art dealer, Glafira Rosales. Knoedler & Co. has been involved in over a dozen lawsuits as a result of the forged artworks it received from Rosales.

Glafira Rosales, the Long Island-based art dealer accused of selling fake artworks to the acclaimed galleries Knoedler & Co. and Julian Weissman Fine Art, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. During her 15-year scheme, Rosales admitted to selling counterfeit works that mimicked the styles of modern masters including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko as well as swindling unsuspecting customers out of over $80 million.

When Rosales brought the forgeries, which were painted by a Queens-based artist in his home studio, to Knoedler and Weissman, she claimed that they were never-before-exhibited and previously unknown works of art. She admitted to arranging for funds from the sales to be funneled to banks in Spain and failed to claim a large portion of the income on her tax returns.

Rosales pleaded guilty to nine charges including wire fraud, tax fraud and money laundering. While the charges carry a potential sentence of up to 99 years, Rosales could be handed a lighter sentence if she cooperates with authorities and shares what she knows with prosecutors, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service. Rosales’ sentencing has been set for March 18, 2013 but will likely be delayed.

Ann Freedman, former president of the disgraced gallery Knoedler & Co., filed a defamation suit on Wednesday, September 11 in New York State Supreme Court. Freedman helmed the historic gallery until it closed in 2011 amidst charges that it had sold forged artworks worth nearly $80 million.

In her case, Freedman declared that she did due diligence in researching a collection that was presented to her and listed nearly 20 experts, including curators from the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, that told her that the works were authentic. However, in many of these cases, the comments were unofficial and decidedly vague.

Freedman’s case is aimed at Manhattan art dealer Marco Grassi who was quoted in a New York magazine as saying “A gallery person has an absolute responsibility to do due diligence, and I don’t think she did it. The story of the paintings is so totally kooky. I mean, really. It was a great story and she just said, ‘this is great.’”

Long Island-based art dealer Glafira Rosales and her boyfriend are allegedly responsible for selling the 60 forgeries to Knoedler & Co. The couple claimed that the works were authentic masterpieces by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. It was recently discovered that they were painted by an artist in his home studio in Queens.  

The now-shuttered Knoedler & Co. gallery, which is the subject of several lawsuits charging it sold fakes, will sell nearly three dozen works from its remaining inventory at auction this fall.

Thirty-four pieces of art from the gallery’s inventory that include works by Robert Rauschenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Jules Olitski, Milton Avery, and Walker Evans, are scheduled to be auctioned off by Doyle New York on Nov. 13, said Harold Porcher, vice-president and director of modern contemporary art at Doyle.