It was bound to happen. Someone is suing the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. and the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board for their authentication practices.
Andy Warhol claimed he wanted to be a machine. His mechanical art practices back that up. As a result of that attitude and Warhol's penchant for knock-offs and marketing, I imagine authenticating his work is no small task. Warhol used authenticity as a foil for his work. His friends all played roles (he loved them more on film than in the flesh), the Factory was a silver-walled spectacle for fun-house reflections and of course he reveled in knocking out phony Brillo and Del Monte boxes. The very idea of the authentic must have made him frown.
There's a lot of money to be made on Warhol's art, so people are bound to seek some system of authentication. It'll be interesting to see how this $20 million suit plays out, but of course Andy (and his art) has the last laugh. Or frown.
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I noticed today that the New York Times, the International Herald
Tribune, Fox News among others wrote a piece about the fake
Brillo Boxes. This story has been running in most of the major papers,
but all exclude a few important facts which are
included in the $20 million dollar plus $100 million damages class
action lawsuit
filed this summer in the Manhattan district court. .
What has been omitted from the press articles, which are growing by
the minute, is the fact that both the co-curator for the museum show
(Olle Granath, a curator at the Museem Modern in Sweden and Paul Morrissey publicly stated that the
sculptures were not real and yet this information was ignored by the
Warhol authentication board and foundation. Now dozens of people and
museums are outof pocket. The boxes were submitted
to the board for the first time in 1995, while Lord Palumbo was
director of the Warhol foundation. Lord Palumbo and others close to
the board own several of these boxes which is acknowledged in the
Warhol catalogue raisonne part 2, (page 81) These boxes were estimated
by Christies at $150-$200,000 each, giving the 105 an approx value of
$21,000,000.
The point being that the board and foundation refuse to acknowledge
information by those closest to Warhol and who were actually there,
but rely on information given to them by dealers while those closest
to them seem to profit. This is the crux of the class action lawsuit.
The board refuse to acknowledge the testimony of Paul Morrissey,
Warhol’s manager and filmmaker who recently sold the
Montauk home he shared with Warhol and rented to people such as Mick
Jagger, Jackie Onasiss for approx $30 million dollars) and others
such as Sam Green, Gerard Malanga, John Richardson, Bridget Berlin and
Billy Name who
were close to the artist and have come out publicly against the Warhol
Foundation and Board. As the foundation spend tens of millions of
dollars in legal fees protecting their secretive and clandestine
organization, far more than they have donated to any charity, this
will continue. The Foundation prefer to acknowledge the testimony of
favored dealers who stand to profit. The Warhol market is now a
billion dollar industry.
A source close to Warhol sent this comment: The news media has been
Ignoring the facts for
for too long handling art corruption with kid gloves. The time is now
for the media to take off the gloves and reveal the corruption & lies
which lurk beneath the veneer & vanity of what passes off as "art."
Joe Simon has been steadfast & relentless in his pursuit for
justice and I know he will be even more relentless as time goes on.
Although all of the evidence is in his favor, the Warhol lawyers are
attempting to have the case thrown out, virtually all of Warhol
colleagues have written statements in his defence and against the
Warhol foundation and board. The lawyers do not want any of this
Information to come to light, especially in court. As this is a class
action, this will involve many who bought the brillo boxes with the
approval of the board. as far as a charitable organization, why did the attorney generals office have to take the foundation to court to explain their spending 10 dollars on themselves for every dollar thy give to charity?
There was a terrific documentary made about the Warhol foundation which is available on youtube. Andy Warhol authentication part 1-7. must see tv really, if the attorney generals office would watch it then maybe they would finish the job they started in the 1900’s and bring this little club to heel.
http://andywarholartauthentication.blogspot.com
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