SOTHEBY’S FILES SECOND FORGERY LAWSUIT
On Monday, Sotheby’s announced that it is filing a lawsuit against London art dealer Mark Weiss and collector David Kowitz, alleging that a work supposedly by a European old master painter that the auction house had previously bought from them and then sold at auction is in fact a forgery, according to Nina Siegal in the New York Times.
The auction house is seeking to recoup profits on a private sale of a Frans Hals painting, Portrait of a Gentleman_, for which Weiss and Kowitz received $10.75 million. The suit was based on research conducted by Orion Analytical, a scientific firm acquired by Sotheby’s last year, and peer reviewed by John Twilley, an independent conservation scientist.
Sotheby’s previously filed a similar lawsuit against Luxembourg art collector Lionel de Saint Donat-Pourrières, who had used the auction house to sell a painting of St. Jerome. Analysis revealed that the work contained phthalocyanine green, a synthetic pigment developed long after the piece was allegedly painted.
