Warhol authentication board shuts down
October 20 2011
The body that authenticated Andy Warhol's work is to shut down - because it kept getting sued. From the Wall Street Journal:
How can you tell if an Andy Warhol silkscreen is the real thing or a fake? Even the Pop master's own art foundation has given up trying to tell the difference.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts said Wednesday that in coming months it plans to shut down its authentication board—the only independent arbiter of the legitimacy of Warhol works that turn up on the art market. [...]
Mr. Straus said a recent string of costly legal disputes with collectors contesting the board's findings influenced the board's decision to give up its role as the "final word" on the late artist's creative output.
One of the highest-profile disputes involved a London filmmaker, Joe Simon, who sued the board four years ago after it refused to vouch for his purported Warhol "Self-Portrait." [above]
I've never entirely understood the concept of the Warhol authentication board. How can you authenticate something the artist admitted never making in the first place?
