Posted by Bill Wilson on June 08, 19101 at 17:18:53:
In Reply to: Marcel Duchamp unknown Nu Descendant Escalier posted by Damien C. Lameray on June 06, 19101 at 07:14:09:
On the question of a legal estate authenticating a painting, executors who have denied that a painting is by, for example, Jackson Pollock, have been sued, so that the estate, with a legal obligation to extract money for the heirs, wasted two or three hundred thousand dollars defending itself. The Pollock-Krasner Estate will not consider authenticating anything now, in order to get on with its work without squandering money. I was once shown a "Jackson Pollock" in an estate that also owned a painting signed by Picasso, but with Picasso's name misspelled. In the case of the Pollock Estate, one should compare photographs of unsigned paintings taken immediately after his death with photographs of the paintings as they were sold. One unfinished work visible in the photographs has been shown in a more finished state, and discussed by a prominent critic. Wise people do not go fishing in these waters. If they do, probably for good will they should give facts, not give attitude.