This article first appeared in Entertainment Law Matters, a Frankfurt Kurnit legal blog.
The Andy Warhol Foundation recently announced that it will dissolve the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board early next year. The closure will allow the Foundation, which is financed by the sale of works from the Warhol estate and provides support for artists, galleries and art publications, to focus on its charitable work. Joel Wachs, the President of the Andy Warhol Foundation, stated that the decision "is a matter of priority, and our responsibility to Andy's mission. Our money should be going to artists, not lawyers.
Indeed, the Foundation has incurred substantial legal fees defending some of the Board's authentication decisions. For example, in 2007, filmmaker Joe Simon-Whelan sued the Foundation and the Board. The spark for the lawsuit was a Foundation-authenticated portrait of Warhol that Simon-Whelan had owned since 1989. When the filmmaker tried to sell the portrait in 2001, the defendants allegedly urged him to resubmit it for authentication by the Board– and then rejected it. Simon-Whelan then advanced a class action on behalf of himself and other Warhol buyers. The suit alleged, among other things, that the defendants violated federal and state antitrust laws by engaging in a conspiracy to restrain and monopolize trade in the market for Warhol works. In November 2010, after three years of litigation, Simon-Whelan dropped his case, reportedly because he could no longer afford to litigate. The Board also reportedly spent nearly $7 million defending the case. This Firm was involved in that case through its representation of Mr. Simon-Whelan's counsel.
The Board has also been criticized for authenticating Warhol works of questionable provenance. For example, artists Gerard Malanga and John Chamberlain were embroiled in a six-year long legal battle over a painting that was certified by the Board as an authentic Warhol. As we reported here, in 2005, Malanga sued Chamberlain seeking the return of 315 Johns, consisting of 315 eight-inch square canvas silkscreen panels depicting Chamberlain's face. Malanga claimed that in 1971, he and two other artists created the portraits in the Warhol style, but without Warhol's knowledge or supervision. Malanga claimed that Chamberlain agreed to store the portraits for him at Chamberlain's loft. Chamberlain said that Warhol, not Malanga, created the silkscreens, and that he obtained the portraits in an art swap with Warhol. Chamberlain claimed he assembled the portraits into what is now called 315 Johns, and that the Board authenticated the work. Earlier this year, the parties reportedly settled on the eve of trial.
Although the Board will no longer exist, the Foundation reportedly will continue to develop its comprehensive catalogue of all Warhol works in existence.
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