Former Director of Gucci in court trying to get the money back for the fake Rothko
ARTinvestment.RU   03 февраля 2016

Domenico de sole bought a fake Rothko painting for $8.3 million through the Knoedler gallery. Now he demands a refund of money and $25 million as compensation for moral damage

Collector Domenico de sole (Domenico de Sole), past Executive Director of the house of Gucci, is suing the oldest new-йоркской the Knoedler gallery, which closed in 2011 and its former Director Ann Freedman from-за fake paintings of Mark Rothko, de sole purchased for $8.3 million affected by the actions of unscrupulous gallery owners collector demands to return him the money for the painting and moreover — $25 million in damages.

so Far this is the only case involving the Knoedler gallery, which went to trial. The scandalous story began in 2011 when one of the oldest and most respected galleries in new-Йорка suddenly announced its closure after 165 years of operation. Soon the gallery one by one the number of lawsuits from defrauded customers. the First plaintiff was a businessman Pierre Lagrange, who bought for 17 million dollars to a questionable work of Jackson Pollock. Then the lawsuit was filed by Domenico De sole and his wife Eleanor. Another fake Rothko for $5.5 million charity bought the Martin Hilti Foundation in Liechtenstein. Another suit filed by John Howard, who bought for $4 million in false work of Willem de Kooning.

Initially, the staff of the gallery in every way unlocked, but then it turned out that all these works were from one source: in the gallery at implementing them brought art-дилер Glafira Rosales. In the period from 1994 to 2008, Rosales sold two respected new-йоркским galleries (mainly in Knoedler) a total of 63 works of authors such as Jackson Pollock, mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, and others Subsequently revealed that many of them are fakes. The dealer allegedly took this work for sale from one customer from Zurich and what the-то Spanish collector. The first client never existed, and the second testified to the FBI that never owned works that were attributed to his collection. During the years of cooperation with Rosales (1996-2008), the Knoedler gallery sold fakes for $63 million, of which a large portion ($43 million) for himself, and $20 million paid to art-дилеру.

Next, it became known that all of these forgeries were written by the same person — 73-летним Chinese artist Pei Shen Qian (Qian Pei Shen), in 1990-е years, selling his paintings on the streets of Manhattan. There it and noticed Glafira Rosales and offered to write in the style of the iconic abstract expressionists. An old Chinese took cheap — to pay several thousand dollars for the painting, but then sold them for millions.

In the court of Domenico de sole stressed that his confidence in "the oldest gallery in Manhattan" and its Director was great, and he even could not assume, as Rothko buys a fake. Gallery Director Ann Friedman stated that the authenticity of the work has been confirmed by leading experts, including the son of Rothko. However, Christopher Rothko on the court under oath said that I never confirmed. Yes, he met twice with Anne Friedman and examined two previously unknown work of his alleged father, but no evidence for them is not allowed. Didn't give Chris Rothko law and Director of Knoedler refer to it when selling the paintings that became the subject of litigation.

the Hearings are held in Federal court in Manhattan. Will continue to monitor developments.

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchin, AI

Sources: artnet.com, nypost.com, artinvestment.ru