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FORMER KNOEDLER & CO. DIRECTOR SETTLES SIXTH FORGERY LAWSUIT

By News Desk

A STATEMENT FROM ARTFORUM’S PUBLISHERS

ROBERT IRWIN (1928–2023)

HONG KONG–BASED AMTD BUYS THE ART NEWSPAPER

February 8, 2016 9:19 am

Colin Moynihan reports in the New York Times_ that the former director of Knoedler & Co., Ann Freedman, has settled a lawsuit with the collectors Domenico and Eleanore De Sole, who accused her in a federal court of fraudulently selling them a fake Mark Rothko painting for $8.3 million. This comes soon after another recent settlement with a different collector who was sold a fake Willem de Kooning. The terms of the new settlement were not disclosed.

The De Soles filed their case in 2012 and were seeking $25 million from Freedman and Knoedler & Co., the gallery she served as president of and which closed in 2011 ahead of several lawsuits over forgeries. This particular case against Freedman, who was scheduled to give her testimony prior to the reached settlement, will be dismissed in Federal District Court in Manhattan but the case against Knoedler will continue.

Five previous lawsuits filed by collectors against Freedman and Knoedler have now been settled before trial. Four remain pending.

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