The case of New York City’s art forgery scandal involving a Chinese immigrant who forged artworks of abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko and a reputable art gallery in Manhattan is now going through trial as a federal jury began hearing the details last week.
Per ABC: The plaintiffs, Domenico De Sole and his wife Eleanore, claim that they purchased a faked artwork of Rothko from Knoedler & Company gallery, a well-known and established art gallery in Manhattan.
Mr. De Sole, a former Gucci CEO, testified in court last week telling the jury about his past experience with Knoedler.
"I got a fake painting for $8.3 million and they don't want to give my money back to me,” he said.
Mrs. De Sole also testified and told jurors that she “went into a shaking frenzy” after first learning that the Rothko called “Untitled 1956” could be a forgery.
According to Yahoo, the couple sued the art gallery and its former director, Ann Freedman in 2013. Federal prosecutors then filed a separate criminal case against Long Island dealer, Glafira Rosales, who plead guilty for selling 40 fakes to the Knoedler before it closed in 2011.
Rosales’ fraud case dates back to the 1990s when she and her boyfriend met future-forger Pei-Shen Qian, an artist who had trained at the same art school where Rothko and other famous painters were enrolled.
Freedman’s lawyer, Atty. Luke Nikas, is portraying her as a victim as well. CTV cited in a report that Freedman’s legal team contends that the forgeries were very well made, that even experts did not spot the difference.
"This is the art world equivalent of finding dinosaur bones. This was an important discovery. Ann believed in it and the art world believed in it," Nikas told the jury in his opening statements.
To this end, the De Soles are seeking no less than $25 million in damages. They claim that the defendant, Freedman, should’ve known that the painting was a counterfeit.
