0:01

I have to say that when

0:03

I learned that this

0:06

was one person, I

0:09

was a little flabbergasted. I

0:12

really was, because these

0:14

artists, yes, they're all around the

0:16

same period, but

0:19

their styles are very, very different,

0:21

and he did a good job. I mean,

0:23

there are other fakes

0:26

in art history, and as I used

0:28

to like to joke when I gave talks, the

0:30

best fakes are still hanging on people's walls.

0:32

You know, they don't even know or suspect

0:35

that they're fakes. By

0:39

two thousand two, an unlikely

0:42

trio of con artists had grown

0:44

rich from their forgery Schemepra

0:48

Rosalez had worked her charms and

0:51

unearthed a dazzling collection of abstract

0:53

Expressionist paintings destined

0:55

for Ann Friedman to acquire for

0:58

the Knodler Gallery, and

1:00

convinced herself that the works were

1:03

genuine. She was desperate to

1:05

squeeze every dollar of profit she

1:07

could from the mysterious works

1:09

works that had no provenance. Anne

1:13

had bought the paintings for unthinkably

1:15

low prices and sold them at

1:17

sky high markups. The profit

1:20

margin was so high that the Knodler

1:22

had come to rely on the mr X

1:24

Junior collection for its very

1:26

survival. Meanwhile,

1:29

the fraudsters were living the American

1:31

dream.

1:33

Carlos Bergantinos, the ideas

1:35

man, patient, Kuon the artist,

1:38

and Glepara Rosalez, the resourceful

1:40

salesperson, had executed

1:42

a scheme that was paying enormous dividends.

1:46

Along with rising profits, however,

1:49

came increased risk. By

1:51

two thousand two, Jack and Fan Levy

1:53

had spent upwards a four point

1:55

three million dollars acquiring master

1:57

works from Knodler. The

2:00

biggest prize was a two million dollar

2:02

Jackson pollock, identified simply

2:04

as untitled nine.

2:07

It had a greenish cast and measured

2:10

twelve by eighteen inches. It

2:12

was small for a pollock, but impressive

2:14

all the same. Before

2:16

the sale could be finalized, however,

2:19

Jack Levy insisted that the pollock

2:21

be vetted by Eye Far the International

2:23

Foundation for Art Research. Up

2:26

to this point, none of the works

2:29

brought in by Glafira Rosalee had

2:31

been subjected to forensic scrutiny,

2:36

and Friedman was so convinced of the

2:38

works authenticity that she readily

2:41

agreed to the Leavi's terms. The

2:44

work was already owned by Jack

2:47

Leavy, so Noodler was

2:49

not quote the client or

2:52

the person who submitted the work to

2:54

eye FAR. There's a lot of misunderstanding

2:57

in the field about that. I

2:59

am share and flesher. I'm executive

3:01

director of the International Foundation

3:04

for Art Research, which is much

3:06

better known under the acronym FAR.

3:11

I FAR as experts provide a

3:13

thorough and impartial analysis

3:15

of visual works of art through profnance

3:18

research and forensic testing.

3:20

I FAR is also well known for their

3:22

pioneering work and art theft, having

3:25

created the first database of stolen

3:28

art. I spoke

3:30

with Sharon in her corner office overlooking

3:32

the New York Public Library. I

3:34

FAR, now a fifty year old institution,

3:37

works with researchers and forensics experts

3:39

to help authenticate artwork submitted from

3:41

all over the world. Jack Levy

3:44

purchased his pollock from the Knodler with no

3:46

inkling that it might be fake. Signing

3:48

up for an eye FAR analysis was a

3:50

mere legal nicety, or so he thought.

3:53

Despite the many pollocks that came through I

3:55

FAR. Sharon too had no doubts that

3:57

the Levy pollock would prove to be right

4:01

maas initial assumption was, of

4:03

course, this would be great. We're going to find

4:05

a new pollock, because

4:07

it would never entered my mind that

4:09

a work that wouldn't be good

4:12

would have been sold through

4:15

the Ndler galery. Sharon

4:17

was unaware of the deal Jack Levy had

4:19

struck with Ann Friedman and Nodler, but

4:22

to her, having the sale of the Pollock

4:24

be contingent upon I far determination

4:26

of authenticity made a lot of

4:28

sense. My logic

4:31

said to me that someone

4:33

who purchases a seventh figure

4:35

work from a reputable

4:38

gallery, if the work turns

4:40

out not to be what that

4:43

person hopes and expects it to be,

4:45

that they will turn right around to the gallery

4:47

and try to get their money back. Usually,

4:50

when a buyer asks a gallery for their money

4:53

back, the gallery writes them a check

4:55

instantly as a matter of course. Reputations,

4:58

after all, are at stake. But

5:00

what if the gallery insists the painting

5:02

Israel and refuses to give the

5:04

buyer their money back. Acting

5:07

on her gut, Sharon took an extra

5:09

measure to protect herself and I

5:11

far I insisted

5:14

that the node Le gallery sign an

5:16

agreement, saying they

5:18

would not sue because

5:22

there would be nothing protecting us. Because

5:24

if we didn't come up with the

5:27

positive review I assumed we would.

5:29

I could just see exactly what would happen. It

5:31

would be returned, He'd

5:34

get the money back, and then the gallery

5:36

would say, well, how can you

5:38

prove that it's not you're defaming

5:41

our name, our character or whatever. It

5:43

was just a vision I had, and

5:46

so I insisted that they signed

5:48

something, and they did. I

5:51

Far began working on the Leavey Pollock using

5:53

the same methods they would apply to any painting

5:56

submitted for authenticity.

5:58

There are some steps that are consistent for

6:00

every painting, and then each

6:03

project takes on a slight life of its

6:05

own. So we are very

6:08

committed in general to what

6:10

I like to think of as a three pronged process,

6:13

which is scholarly research,

6:17

connoisseurship, the expert eyes.

6:19

We had actually quite a few specialists who

6:21

examined this work, in some cases

6:23

more than once, and the physical

6:26

properties of the work, which

6:28

sometimes includes a

6:31

detailed lab examination forensic

6:33

examination. Right

6:36

away, the scholarly research aspect

6:38

of I Far work turned up

6:40

red flags for starters. The paintings

6:42

lack of provenance was a problem for Sharon.

6:46

We were sent the skimpiest

6:48

possible provenance information

6:51

that one can be sent for a work

6:54

that is of a major artist, and

6:56

of seven figure value essentially

6:59

enough. And I actually personally

7:02

called Anne I knew an

7:04

and cultured to give them the

7:06

benefit of the doubt, saying,

7:09

we can be more helpful on this project

7:12

if you supply more information

7:14

to us. And at that

7:17

time she actually said, you're

7:19

researching the provenance, as

7:22

I said, of course,

7:24

we always researched the provenance.

7:27

What did you think? And she said, I thought

7:29

you would just bring experts together to

7:31

look at the work and say whether it's good. I

7:33

said, we're doing that as well, But of

7:35

course we research the provenance

7:43

and was in a predicament I

7:45

far as work was thorough and consistent.

7:49

And because Jack Levy had officially submitted

7:51

the work to I Far not Nodler, there

7:53

was nothing Anne could do to finesse

7:55

her way out of the problem. Sitting on

7:58

Sharon's desk, a

8:00

deeper I Far dug into the history

8:02

of the Levy Pollock the more nervous

8:04

and seemed to become for Sharon.

8:07

The backstory just wasn't adding up.

8:10

It was just simply said and

8:12

relayed to us. It was acquired through

8:14

Osario. This was it. The

8:17

Osorio story conjured up by gap

8:20

Rozalice had now made its way through

8:22

Ann Friedman to Sharon and

8:24

I Far. Alfonso Osario

8:26

had died, but his longtime partner

8:28

ted Dragon was still alive. So

8:31

I contacted Dragon simply

8:34

to find out, after he lived with Osario

8:36

from many years, could he provide

8:39

information? Is he familiar

8:41

with this work, is he aware of

8:43

Osorio ever having dealt

8:47

with it? And what was Ted Dragon's reaction?

8:49

He had never seen the work. He

8:51

didn't think there was any connection whatsoever

8:54

to Osario because had there

8:57

been, given his

8:59

in amit relationship with Osario

9:02

over so many years and particularly

9:04

at that period, that he

9:07

would have known if there

9:09

was a connection. And we did

9:11

other research as well, and we could

9:13

find nothing to substantiate the

9:16

Osorio connection. The

9:20

Osorio provenance was crumbling under

9:22

scrutiny from I Far. The whole

9:24

notion of Osorio serving as a middleman

9:26

between dealers and artists went nowhere.

9:29

But what about the painting itself. This

9:32

particular work was canvas

9:34

mountain on masonite, which is a type of

9:36

fiberboard. Paula did have canvases

9:39

mounted on masonite. In

9:42

this case it was mounted

9:44

on the rough side of the masonite.

9:47

Most of the ones of his that were

9:49

mounted were mounted on the

9:51

smooth side of the masonite,

9:54

but he also painted directly on masonite.

9:57

I can't tell you that one

10:00

of the specialists to examine this

10:02

work immediately was

10:05

upset. They felt

10:07

that it was mounted on that mason

10:09

I just so that we couldn't see the back

10:11

of the canvas. That's

10:13

why they're doing it, you know, to hide

10:15

this. I put here on

10:18

the cover of a detail of

10:20

the painting. Sharon was

10:22

showing me the cover of one of I Far's

10:24

publications from two thousand sixteen,

10:27

titled Hindsight Lessons

10:30

from the Noler Rosalee Affair. On

10:32

the cover are two rectangular photos

10:35

of Jackson Pollock's signatures on paintings.

10:38

Red arrows indicate that one is an actual

10:40

Pollock, the other a fake. The

10:42

photos are zoomed in to show the detail

10:44

of the signature itself and the canvas.

10:47

Here's the signature Jackson Pollock

10:51

that's signed on that painting, and

10:53

this is the bottom you can see.

10:55

Here, here's the canvas,

10:58

and here's the mason I when

11:00

Pollock did it, first of all, he did it on

11:02

the other side of the masonite, on

11:04

the smooth side, and he put some

11:06

sizing on it, and over

11:09

the fifty year period from nine

11:11

to two thousand, the masonite

11:14

with his sizing had aged and

11:16

colored completely differently than

11:19

the masonite in this work. How

11:22

interesting. Wow, So you

11:24

really had there was maybe a first red flag. For

11:26

sure. It was more than the first red flag. We

11:28

already had some red flags, as

11:30

I said earlier, not just the provenance

11:33

any connection whatsoever

11:35

to Pollock. Are their photo

11:37

archives that show this work in the background.

11:40

Are their letters that mentioned a

11:42

work that fits this description? We

11:45

did all of that. These

11:49

were the kind of telltale details

11:52

that led I far to issue its

11:54

shocking opinion. We

11:57

said, we cannot accept the work

12:00

as a work by Jackson Pollock. It

12:03

is the same as saying I'm writing a catalog

12:06

raison A and I'm not including your

12:08

work in the catalog raisin A. We

12:11

couched our words because we

12:14

couldn't hammer that nail in the coffin.

12:17

Absolutely, Anne

12:20

was pretty ticked, was she not. Did

12:22

she not speak publicly and disparage

12:25

and she certainly spoke privately and disparaged

12:28

us two people, because it got back

12:30

to me all the time years

12:33

later when she felt free to talk about the Leavy

12:35

Pollock and I far As rejection

12:38

of it, and would blithely say, quote,

12:40

there was a recent history of bad feeling between

12:43

I Far and Knoedler unquote,

12:45

Hi far As experts were biased and

12:47

implied that was why I Far

12:50

had nixed the painting, where

12:52

I felt she impugned our integrity

12:55

by saying there was a history of bad feelings,

12:57

therefore she wanted to dismiss what

12:59

we said. First of all, there was no

13:01

history of bad feelings that I knew

13:04

of, and certainly not during

13:06

my tenure, and I had already been here a few

13:08

years. But more importantly,

13:10

to assert that

13:12

even if there were bad feelings,

13:15

it might change our report.

13:18

I was incredulous that anyone

13:20

would make such a statement, because

13:23

we only exist because

13:26

of our good name and our

13:28

reputation for integrity. We're

13:30

not going to assulliate and I'm

13:32

not going to let anyone else sully

13:34

it. With

13:39

Far's final judgment on the Levee

13:41

Pollic in two thousand three, and

13:43

took the painting back very discreetly.

13:47

She returned the two million dollars to Jack

13:49

Levy contractually, she had no choice.

13:52

Shortly after the sale, was refunded

13:55

and called a Canadian collector, David

13:57

Mervish, with news that she had a wonderful

14:00

deal for him. Anne was absolutely

14:03

sure. She said that I Far had

14:05

been wrong and that the painting was legitimate

14:09

to back up her claim, and suggested

14:11

that she herself by a one third

14:14

interest in Untitled nineteen

14:16

forty nine. The gallery would

14:18

buy a partial share, as would Mervish.

14:21

Certainly they would sell the painting at some

14:23

point for a fortune. Mervish

14:26

agreed, and Untitled nineteen

14:28

forty nine was duly put aside for

14:31

that future day. It's I Far

14:33

status kept quiet, but

14:36

the damage was done. As Anne

14:39

later said in Vanity Fair, quote,

14:41

it was a backfire because Ted Dragon

14:43

went crazy. Osorio would

14:45

never have hidden anything from me unquote.

14:48

That cast a paul over the painting

14:51

and the whole story of Osorio as

14:53

middleman for mister and Missus X. Anne

14:56

asked Glypha, could mister and Missus

14:59

X have been wrong had they or

15:01

their son confused Osorio

15:03

with someone else? Glafira promised

15:06

to address the issue and then came back

15:08

with a change in the story more

15:14

in a minute, As

15:17

it turned out, and was right. Osorio

15:21

had been in the mix, but only marginally,

15:23

Sofia said. The dealer

15:25

who had handled most of those paintings

15:27

for Mr and Mrs X was actually

15:30

an art handler named David Herbert.

15:33

She was so sorry for any confusion.

15:36

This is one of those iffy moments

15:39

in the story where you raised

15:41

out one but two eyebrows and think,

15:44

wait a minute, how were you not

15:46

suspicious when the

15:49

entire backstory suddenly shifted.

15:52

That's author Maria Kannakova. Again.

15:55

It shows a few things the

15:57

part of the con artists, obviously, it shows

16:00

rate ingenuity and once again listening because

16:03

Anne inadvertently told

16:05

them what to say, because she said, these

16:08

are the holes, these are the things that

16:10

people are suspicious of. And

16:12

she even had suggestions, right,

16:15

maybe was it this? Was it that? So

16:17

she threw out things that they

16:19

could then use. Once

16:21

again, the con artists here, your job

16:24

is to listen and to figure out, Okay,

16:26

what do I need to change? What

16:28

are they reacting to, what's

16:30

working, what's not working?

16:33

David Herbert working wonderful. Let's

16:35

keep him in and try to figure out, you

16:37

know how, how we can change the story

16:39

to the elements that aren't working, to

16:41

fill in the parts of the narrative

16:44

that are causing us problems.

16:47

Now, the other element, of course, is

16:49

if you're an how in the world do you not

16:52

see this. One of the things

16:54

that I've argued over and

16:56

over again is that it's

16:58

impossible to judge from the outside,

17:01

because from the outside your objective. From

17:03

the inside, once you're already in the middle of it,

17:06

once you're already emotionally involved,

17:08

your objectivity is gone. It's really

17:10

difficult. It takes a very specific, strong

17:13

person who probably would not have gotten

17:16

into the situation to begin with, to

17:18

be able to see clearly in the heat

17:20

of the moment, and most people just cannot

17:22

do that. I think that

17:25

she was already so deep in

17:27

the con that it didn't

17:29

strike her as weird. It just struck

17:31

her. As we're getting more information, it's

17:34

on a need to know basis, as

17:36

I need to know more, they tell me more.

17:39

Whereas for us, when we're looking at this, we're

17:41

shaking our heads and thinking, wait, no, no, you're not

17:43

allowed to change the story. If you're and

17:45

you're thinking, oh, okay, that makes sense,

17:48

great, wonderful. David

17:56

Herbert, Now, the key figure in the back

17:58

story was a brilliant race

18:00

He was a real person whose modest

18:02

life and times fit the larger story

18:05

a dealer many in the art world had

18:07

known. Almost

18:10

certainly, Anne had heard about Herbert

18:12

through Haimi Andrade, since Herbert

18:14

had been Andrada his best friend for

18:16

decades. Also convenient,

18:19

David Herbert had died just seven

18:22

years prior. In his

18:25

executor none other than Heimi

18:27

Andrade. Into Andrade's

18:30

hands went all of Herbert's files

18:33

upon his death. Possibly those

18:35

files contained bits that might embellish

18:38

gafa's story of mister and Mrs

18:40

X. From what Anne

18:42

now understood, David Herbert had

18:45

been more than a middleman between downtown

18:47

artists and Mr X, setting

18:49

up sales and taking commissions. Herbert

18:52

had been Mr X's lover during

18:54

long periods in the nineteen fifties

18:56

in New York. Once

18:58

again, for Ann, and the result was

19:01

the opportunity to access

19:03

newly discovered masterpieces.

19:07

One key link between David Herbert

19:09

and the art world he inhabited was the

19:11

legendary dealer Sydney Janis. After

19:15

a humble start in the garment industry,

19:17

Janis had made his fortune by inventing

19:19

a two pocket men's Oxford shirt.

19:22

His true passion however, was contemporary

19:25

art that led him to become

19:27

a dealer, eventually representing many

19:29

of the mid century greats. In eight

19:32

he opened a fifth floor gallery on Street,

19:35

down the hall from another emerging and important

19:38

dealer, Betty Parsons. Much

19:40

to parsons indignation, by nineteen

19:42

fifty two, some of her top artists had left

19:44

her stable and moved down the hall to

19:47

Sydney Janis. She

19:49

was more of an artist than a dealer.

19:52

She couldn't quite sell any of the

19:54

works of the artist. That was the

19:56

problem. That's Carol

19:58

Janis, one of Sydney Janis's two

20:00

sons, who worked in the gallery with his father

20:02

for years. One of the artists

20:05

who came down the hall from Betty Parsons

20:07

was Jackson Pollock. Carol's

20:09

father liked Pollock's work. He was

20:11

also sympathetic to the struggles that

20:13

came with being an artist. He

20:16

bought a little painting from him

20:18

during that year four.

20:21

He told me that he bought

20:23

it because Pollock was so

20:26

poor that he just felt that

20:28

he should buy something. To

20:31

Betty Parsons lifelong fury.

20:34

Pollock would move to the Sydney Janis

20:36

Gallery for the remainder of his career.

20:39

Mark Rothko came down the hole too.

20:41

After issuing a modest plea, he

20:44

told Sydney Janie that he had to earn

20:46

seventy dollars a year to support

20:48

his family. Could the Janis Gallery

20:50

promise him that much? Janis

20:53

thought it was possible. In

20:55

the first year he made fifteen

20:58

fans and wow, he

21:02

that was big money in nineteen fifty two,

21:04

over thousand dollars. Today,

21:07

most downtown artists survived

21:10

on a lot less, some so

21:12

strapped that they sold paintings

21:14

out of the back door, as it were, privately,

21:17

without the involvement of their dealer. That

21:20

was how David Herbert played into

21:22

the story. Herbert

21:25

was no figment of Ann Friedman's imagination.

21:29

He was an art insider who, at different

21:31

times in the nineteen fifties worked

21:33

for both Betty Parsons and Carol's father,

21:35

Sidney Janice. Herbert brought

21:37

clients to various artists studios,

21:40

introduced those clients to the artists,

21:43

and handled the occasional back door selling

21:45

of paintings to help them scrape by

21:48

in tough times. He was about

21:50

five nine. I think he had a

21:52

little mustache. He worked

21:55

with Betty for a couple of years. I suppose

21:59

partly as ann handler and

22:01

partly to talk the clients coming in. He

22:03

was not very successful with Penny,

22:06

but Betty came over and somehow take

22:10

my dad into giving him a job, which

22:12

he did give him. He was also gregarious

22:15

and liked to talk to the clients. Everybody

22:18

started to do was to take

22:20

clients to artists

22:23

studios and tried to

22:25

sell them works out of the studios.

22:28

At first, Sydney Jannis didn't mind.

22:31

It was something he was doing and

22:34

as long as he was doing it with any

22:36

of the hundreds of artists in New York

22:39

who were not with the gallery and

22:42

didn't say anything. Unfortunately,

22:46

David Herbert's eagerness to help these far flung

22:49

artists and perhaps to profit from them,

22:51

led to a bad end. Carol

22:55

recalls Herbert handling money for one

22:57

very important artist who was in fact a

22:59

Jenna artist, Willem de Kooning.

23:04

Gave to then and they asked him for an advance

23:06

for his studio. He had gave him

23:09

what he asked for, fifty dollars,

23:11

and then the next year he came and

23:13

he asked again for not a fifty

23:16

and then that was quite a lot in those days.

23:19

They told him no, he wouldn't lend into him.

23:21

So that meant cooning

23:24

at the start, selling out of

23:26

his studio because he needed

23:28

the money to pay for the

23:30

gallery. Yeah, and the handle

23:33

that directly because he loved the coon, and

23:36

the ning loves the gallery. And now they

23:38

were at as because he was

23:40

selling out of his studio but not giving

23:43

the gallery of commission, and

23:46

David Herbert was in the thick of it, paying

23:48

the cooning for works the painter was

23:50

selling for money he desperately needed.

23:53

Herbert had to go. So

23:55

one my dad found out about Mattie

23:57

Well, he let him go of imediately.

24:02

It was easy to imagine how

24:04

Anne Friedman could have believed the story

24:06

of a feckless art handler who

24:09

bought and sold works on his own. By

24:12

the nineteen seventies and eighties, almost

24:14

everyone in the art world knew of David

24:16

Herbert. He remained a droll

24:18

character from the same Demi mond As,

24:21

Alfonso Asorio and Jim Andrade.

24:24

Painter Bill Draper would give

24:26

two day parties, as one dealer says,

24:28

and Herbert would be there along with his

24:31

dear friends him Andrade and Richard

24:33

brown Baker. There too would

24:35

be brook Aster, Mayor John Lindsay,

24:38

and art Maven Marian Javits. It

24:41

was an indulgent and freer

24:43

time. By then,

24:45

Herbert had begun to struggle. He

24:47

threw in with the distinguished dealer Richard

24:50

Faken for a short lived venture no

24:52

managerial skills at all.

24:55

Fiken later grumbled. Despite

24:58

his lack of funds, her Bert never

25:00

lost his sense of humor. He would

25:02

come into the Knoedler and pretend he was a

25:04

collector. It calls a Knodler staffer.

25:08

Herbert would say, I'm furious that

25:10

Kndler has not delivered my art for three

25:12

months. I've been calling. I've paid

25:14

for it already unquote. He was

25:16

funny, says the staffer. By

25:20

the time David Herbert died, he'd

25:23

become almost a destitute. He

25:26

had a very hard last couple of years,

25:28

recalls a friend from his gallery. He

25:30

was basically living on friends and

25:33

really had no retirement money.

25:36

As long as David Herbert was alive, these

25:39

paintings weren't going to come out, and Friedman

25:41

said in vanity fair quote. The

25:43

fear was that if the paintings came out, while

25:45

Herbert was alive, Herbert might

25:48

have been extremely upset and

25:50

he might have revealed the identity of the owner.

25:52

There's no question that the paintings would have been paid

25:54

for with cash. Tax is not paid,

25:57

assets not declared, and you

25:59

can go to jail for that end quote.

26:04

So sure was Anne about the newly

26:07

modified back story that she even

26:09

gave a new name to the paintings coming

26:11

from Glypia Rosalis. The

26:13

paintings, she said, now constituted

26:16

the David Herbert collection once

26:19

David Herbert passed away, and said,

26:22

that's when Mr x Jr. Felt he could

26:24

release these paintings.

26:27

More than one Knodler staffer saw

26:29

a victim in retrospect, him

26:32

Andrade. Perhaps Andrade

26:34

had told Anne stories of his old friend

26:36

David Herbert. Maybe he had acknowledged

26:39

that Herbert might have sold some of these paintings

26:42

on the slide. Still, if

26:44

he had colluded with Anne and Glyphia, where

26:46

was the profit in it for him?

26:49

Himie did not profit from it. He never

26:52

got a commission, so there's nothing on him, says

26:54

an ex Nodler staffer. He

26:56

was horrified by all that happened. The staffer

26:58

adds, I you're very sorry for

27:01

him. He's a gentleman of the older kind. And

27:04

now all and Ratty had was

27:06

a ghostly cobweb department

27:08

filled with South American art next

27:11

door to the gallery he loved

27:13

so much. As for

27:15

David Herbert, he too seemed

27:17

a victim, even if a posthumous

27:20

one. It's very easy

27:22

to put something on him, because he's not around

27:24

to dispute it, said Herbert's friend

27:26

from the gallery. What should

27:29

have been early red flags at the Knoedler

27:31

Gallery, those early deep and Corn

27:33

drawings, that brilliant Rothko and

27:35

now the returned Levy Pollock instead

27:38

remained art world secrets. For

27:40

now, none of them stirred

27:43

any attention because sales of the

27:45

works remained confidential. As

27:47

it turned out, the Levy Pollock that I

27:50

far had judged to be not a

27:52

legitimate work was actually one

27:54

of several Pollocks that Ann Friedman

27:56

would eventually snatch up from Gfia

27:59

Rosales more

28:09

art fraud in a minute, No

28:13

one knew the true story of

28:15

the Knodler Galleries finances. Later,

28:19

when the galleries money manager testified

28:21

at trial, he would say that the

28:23

paintings of the David Herbert collection were

28:26

not merely helpful to the galleries

28:28

bottom line. They were essential.

28:32

Without those sales, the k Nobler would have

28:34

been losing big money. By two thousand

28:37

four, thanks to his

28:39

paintings, the Kndler was at least getting

28:41

by. Joe

28:44

Stephens, the Notler's long serving art

28:46

handler, sensed the true state of the gallery

28:48

when he was abruptly fired after nearly forty

28:50

five years on the job. My

28:53

heart and soul was in that place. I'd

28:55

love to work in there, and I was

28:58

good at it. To be honest,

29:00

I wanted to kill her. I

29:03

hated hug Guts and I don't

29:05

hate anybody, but she made

29:08

life miserable for me and the

29:10

girls by keeping him there. Everything. She

29:12

walked three blocks and she's home. I

29:16

think she knew that. I knew things were going

29:18

on. That's probably

29:21

why I got dumped. I don't

29:23

know for sure. Can we put

29:25

it that way as your suspicion? And

29:31

was now squarely focused on selling works

29:33

from the David Herbert collection, and

29:35

that was becoming a very dangerous

29:37

enterprise. By

29:40

two thousand five, the contemporary art

29:42

market had soared thanks to a

29:44

fivefold increase in new billionaires

29:47

since the nineteen eighties, and

29:49

the billionaires loved contemporary

29:52

art. They loved

29:54

the status it conferred to. Most

29:56

of all, they loved the profits many contemporary

29:59

artists were general rating. The new

30:01

meme was art as an asset.

30:05

The market was now more than a place to buy

30:07

and sell art. It was a lifestyle.

30:10

Wealthy collectors jetted to art fares around

30:12

the world, greeting each other like old

30:14

friends. They attended glittering

30:16

parties held by the biggest and most powerful

30:18

dealers at the Venice Bionale

30:21

at Art Basel in Switzerland, and

30:23

at the Freeze Fairs in London, l

30:25

A and New York. Entree

30:28

to the club didn't require old money or

30:30

expertise in art, not anymore.

30:33

All you needed to join the club with money and

30:35

a willingness to spend it. Art

30:38

has become the status symbol, as dealer

30:40

Gavin Brown put it, the lingua

30:42

franca of the wealthy. At

30:45

some point in the early two thousands, Cfra

30:48

and Carlos attempted to open their own

30:50

gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York

30:53

City. It was aloft

30:55

on Nineteenth Street. Carlos called

30:57

it King's Fine Art. Records

31:00

suggest he staged exactly

31:02

one opening a trio of

31:05

Cuban American artists who went nowhere

31:08

found the gallery ridiculous.

31:12

You know, he was a show off, and he wants

31:14

to presume that he

31:17

was a businessman. Of course, did

31:19

you work with him at that gallery or now? It?

31:21

Well, not really, like I said, It was occasionally

31:24

in and he was the one who was putting

31:26

it together. The

31:31

Chelsea Loft that Carlos opened

31:33

was a bush league effort to join the art

31:35

market in earnest serious

31:38

dealers. Those who, for starters

31:40

dealt in authentic art were in a

31:42

whole other world, one that Carlos

31:44

and could only dream of. By

31:48

now, the best abstract expressionist

31:50

works were all but impossible to

31:53

acquire unless she were willing to

31:55

pay stratospheric prices. Hedge

31:58

fund manager Ken Griffin would

32:00

become famous for buying a dacooning and

32:02

a pollock in a package deal for

32:04

five hundred million dollars. With

32:09

all this frenzy, the contemporary art

32:11

market rose from roughly twenty billion

32:13

in two thousand to sixty three

32:15

billion in two thousand eight. In

32:18

the midst of this hyperactive market, Anne

32:20

had begun publicly showcasing works

32:22

from the David Herbert collection. The

32:25

mecca for New York art dealers was

32:28

the annual Armory Show, hosted by

32:30

the Art Dealers Association of America

32:32

or a d a A. The

32:34

Park Avenue Armory is a vast, high

32:37

vaulted space that once sheltered

32:39

Union military troops and their horses.

32:42

Any dealer worth their salt was compelled

32:44

to rent a booth at the Armory Show, seemingly

32:48

confident that her latest works from

32:50

the David Herbert collection were genuine, and

32:53

began displaying the paintings at each a

32:55

d a a Show. Every

32:57

time we got a painting from Glyphira, we'd

33:00

hang it in the Knodler's booth at the Armory,

33:02

and later told Vanity Fair had

33:05

anyone found anything wrong, she noted,

33:07

believe me, I would have been told take

33:10

that down off the wall. She

33:12

would never take more than one of those to

33:14

the Armory Show, notes one ex

33:17

staffer. It might be flanked

33:19

by a great Milton Avery landscape, or

33:21

maybe a Robert Motherwell, so it

33:23

was surrounded by the creme de la creme with

33:25

impeccable provenance. It

33:27

wasn't some po dunk Pollock. Another

33:31

ex staffer rolls his eyes at that there

33:33

was either a Pollock or a Newman on display

33:36

at the Kndler booth. The staffer recalls

33:38

of one year's display. People

33:40

began whispering, you have to go look,

33:42

but don't say anything. Everyone

33:44

knew it was fake. Everyone was laughing

33:46

about it, But as Patricia Cohen

33:49

of The New York Times notes, they were

33:51

all instructed by lawyers not to say anything.

33:54

Why the fear of being sued.

33:59

As those brilliant but baffling works kept

34:01

popping up, Freedman's fellow dealers

34:03

made a blood sport and speculating about which,

34:05

if any, of the paintings in the David Herbert

34:07

collection were real, and why did

34:09

Anne Freeman keep promoting pictures one

34:12

after another that had no provenance,

34:16

as one Armory show followed

34:18

another, and believe that her paintings

34:21

were acquiring provenance by

34:23

simply being exhibited. Dealers

34:27

found that absurd bullshit,

34:29

that it's a building block toward authentication.

34:32

One dealer snorted, she

34:34

kept trotting out this ship at the Armory

34:36

shows. I saw the Barnet Newman

34:38

there, the roth Coo there, the Pollock

34:40

there. All were fake, the dealer

34:42

muttered to his colleagues. Yet

34:45

Anne seemed oblivious to their

34:47

inauthenticity. The

34:49

dealer said, if you don't have an eye, and you

34:52

don't have the ability to discern differences

34:54

in an artist's work, you're lost.

34:57

I don't care how much secondary research you

34:59

do, and

35:02

left those Armory shows with a sense

35:04

of exultation. Her masterpieces

35:07

had survived another gauntlet. A

35:09

few of her rival dealers even through

35:11

her a word of affirmation, a

35:14

vague word or two, but enough for Ann

35:16

to go on the Levy

35:19

Pollock declared all but fake by e far

35:21

had incensed Anne worse

35:25

and had jeopardized the business she'd worked

35:27

so hard to keep afloat The

35:29

Nodler needed a miracle. Magically,

35:33

GPA would conjure up a Jackson Pollock

35:35

painting so brilliant that no one

35:38

would cast doubt on its authenticity,

35:41

one that would ultimately command the highest

35:43

price ever paid for a work.

35:45

Emerging from Patient Kwan's

35:48

garage in Queens must

35:51

have been January two twenty and

35:53

he started talking to me about the Nobler case. He

35:56

was warning a tuxedo so as I was a big

35:58

formal wedding, and I and well,

36:01

somebody told me that Pierre Legrange was

36:03

a really stupid person. I

36:05

said, I think that buying a painting

36:07

for Man Friedman, he must be a real dumb

36:09

shit. He got screwed for

36:11

seventeen million dollars. And he looked at me

36:14

and he said, on Pierre Le Grand, the

36:18

seventeen million dollar Jackson

36:20

Pollock. That's next time

36:22

on Art Fraud, Love

36:24

Last at a King HEGs,

36:28

don't be the thing on

36:31

the Street of Dreams, Dreams

36:37

broken into can't

36:40

be made like new on

36:43

the Street of Dreams. Art

36:48

Fraud is brought to you by my Heart Radio

36:51

and Cavalry Audio. Our

36:53

executive producers are Matt del Piano,

36:56

Keegan Rosenberger, Andy Turner,

36:58

myself, and Michael sn Ayerson.

37:00

We're produced by Brandon Morgan and Zach

37:03

McNeice. Zach also edited

37:05

and mixed this episode. Lindsay

37:07

Hoffman is our managing producer.

37:10

Howard Writer is Michael Schneyerson.