The owner of a
silk-screen self-portrait of Andy Warhol is suing the late
artist's estate, saying it conspired for 20 years to control
the market for Warhol's work with authority to stamp
''DENIED'' on any work it claimed was fake. In a $20
million lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. district court,
Joe Simon-Whelan said the Andy Warhol Foundation for the
Visual Arts Inc. and the Andy Warhol Art
Authentication Board forced owners of each Warhol work
to sign contracts giving them a ''perpetual veto right
over its authenticity.''
He accused them
of engaging in a two-decade scheme of fraud, collusion,
and manipulation that caused them to twice deny the
authenticity of his 24- by 20-inch silk-screen even
though it already had been authenticated multiple
times by the estate or its related entities.
As a result, the
lawsuit says, anyone who buys a Warhol painting that has
been authenticated by the board risks having the
authenticity revoked at any time.
Simon-Whelan, a
U.S. film writer and producer who lives in London,
accused the foundation and the board of providing ''a
facade of corporate credibility obscuring a
deeply corrupt enterprise that enables defendants to
benefit from Warhol's art and reputation.'' He said they had
adopted a policy of rejecting as many works as
possible to induce artificial scarcity in the market
for Warhol's creations.
The foundation's
chief financial officer, K.C. Maurer, said she had not
seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment. A telephone message
left with the authentication board was not returned.
Simon-Whelan said
he bought the silk-screen, called Double Denied in
his court papers, for $195,000 in 1989, two years
after Warhol died. The work was one of several created
in 1964 at Warhol's direction from an acetate personally
created and chosen by him, the lawsuit said. It was
going to be sold in December 2001 for $2 million until
the authentication board without explanation stamped
''DENIED'' on the back of it in red ink, which bled through
to the front, according to the lawsuit. Simon-Whelan
said he submitted it a second time in 2003 only to get
rejected again. The lawsuit said Double Denied is one
of a small series of paintings created by Warhol so he
could exchange them for rare and expensive video
cameras, video recorders, and other equipment that could
be used in his filmmaking. (AP)
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