(Courtesy Knoedler & Company)

In its May issue, Vanity Fair delves into the ongoing saga surrounding the Knoedler gallery, the Upper East Side stalwart which closed last year after 165 years in business, and its former director Ann Freedman. The gallery made headlines when allegations surfaced that it sold fake works attributed to some of the 20th century's biggest artists, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Robert Motherwell.

While we've heard a lot about the scandal involving KnoedleR, and the various sales it made of works whose provenance is now disputed, Michael Schnayerson's piece gives a colorful back story of Ms. Freedman, her rise at Knoedler and then her fall, challenging her due diligence in researching the provenance of her acquisitions for the gallery.

Also intriguing is the article's exploration of the mysterious figure of Glafira Rosales, the "well-dressed and cultivated" Long Island art dealer who first dazzled Ms. Freedman with a work on paper by Rothko. Ms. Rosales then began bringing a steady stream of works, unrecorded and never-before-seen, by some of the 20th century's biggest and best-selling artists, all of which were allegedly brought to Ms. Rosales by an anonymous collector who would be referred to as "Mr. X Jr."

By far the most compelling portion of the article is the investigation into the identity of Mr. X Jr. This part deals with the various contradictory stories put forth by Ms. Rosales and believed by Ms. Freedman. According to Ms. Freedman, as reported by Mr. Schnayerson, Mr. X Jr. was initially a man whose parents were friendly with the Abstract-Expressionist artist Alfonse Ossorio. "Supposedly Ossorio brought the couple  to artists' studios, where they purchased paintings from the artists directly," writes Mr. Schnayerson.

Ms. Freedman says that she was told by Ms. Rosales that these paintings remained in storage, so none of them appeared in the relevant catalogues raisonnés of the artists. By a seemingly contradictory account later put forth to Ms. Freedman by Ms. Rosario, Mr. X Jr. was the son of a wealthy man who was the lover of a gallerist and man-about-town David Herbert, who was part of the "gay art-world circle," and a key player. Mr. Herbert, who worked for two prominent galleries, would bring Mr. X Sr. to various studios where Mr. X Sr. bought works "out the back door." Mr. X Sr. then passed away, leaving his son to wait until Mr. Herbert passed away, before quietly selling off the undocumented works. In one particularly notable passage, Mr. Schnayerson writes the following:

Whatever the links from Herbert to Andrade to Rosales, suggests Carroll Janis, they don't prove anything about the paintings. Janis, who worked  at his father's gallery in the 1950s and remembers Herbert well, says the story of Herbert's selling major works on the side is hard to swallow. Sidney Janis kept careful records; so did the artists.... Yet no records exist for any of the David Herbert paintings—not from galleries or artists' studios. "I mean maybe three weren't catalogued," says one dealer. "But 20?"

Curiously, Freedman never sought to learn more about the well-mannered woman who brought her such dazzling, newly discovered pictures.

On Friday, The New York Times wrote an article about a federal investigation of "expert forgeries" of artists Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell, many of which came to the market through an art dealer from Long Island, Glafira Rosales. In several cases, these works were eventually sold through Knoedler by its former president, Ann Freedman. She resigned her post in 2009 amid accusations by the Dedalus Foundation--started by Motherwell to protect his work--that some of the works sold by the gallery were forgeries.

Knoedler is not implicated in the federal investigation, but on Friday a London collector sued the gallery and Ms. Freedman for selling him an allegedly forged Pollock for $17 million.

According to court documents--reported out today by Courthouse News Service--the gallery announced its closing "just one day after plaintiffs provided defendants with a copy of the written report declaring the work to be a forgery..."

The collector, Pierre Lagrange, claims he was lied to by the gallery. He says the gallery told him that they had shown the painting to "12 leading Pollock scholars" who all had "positive opinions" about it. The painting was not included in Pollock's catalogue raisonné. When Mr. Lagrange tried to sell the painting to Christie's, he received a rejection letter stating it was "generally agreed in our industry that Pollock paintings not listed in the catalogue raisonné, are rarely accepted in the marketplace."

According to Bloomberg, in an article published last Friday, Mr. Lagrange is seeking "at least $15.3 million--his purchase price less the $1.7 million commission he paid to two intermediaries -- plus punitive damages."

Ms. Freedman continued to defend the work. According to The Times article about the investigation of forged paintings sold by Ms. Rosales, she said "there was no better demonstration of her faith in the work than the purchase for her personal collection of three paintings from Ms. Rosales, a Motherwell, a Pollock and a Rothko, which she still owns."

The Times reported from court documents that in 2009 a forensic analysis of two Motherwell paintings sold by Ms. Rosales--one from personal collection of Ms. Freedman, the other was on display at Knoedler--said that they "contained pigments that were not 'invented until at least 10 years after the date on the paintings.'"

The gallery's website has since been taken down and replaced with the initial note regarding the end to its 165-year history:

"It is with profound regret that the owners of Knoedler Gallery announce its closing, effective November 30, 2011. This was a business decision made after careful consideration over the course of an extended period of time. Gallery staff are assisting with an orderly winding down of Knoedler Gallery."

A phone call to the gallery leads one to a recorded phone message that says, "The process of winding down is ongoing, and if you have pending business with the gallery please leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will return your call as soon as possible."

“It is with profound regret that the owners of Knoedler Gallery announce its closing, effective today. This was a business decision made after careful consideration over the course of an extended period of time. Gallery staff will assist with an orderly winding down of Knoedler Gallery.”

Knoedler opened before New York even had a major museum, and went on to champion the work of John Singer Sargent, Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella and many others.

The gallery has been in the news recently over a civil lawsuit involving the Dedalus Foundation, the nonprofit foundation created by the artist Robert Motherwell that is involved in conserving his works and placing them in museum collections. The foundation accused Ann Freedman, the gallery's former president, of selling forged Motherwell paintings. She has the accusation. After resigning in October 2009, she opened her own Upper East Side gallery, FreedmanArt.

The gallery struggled during the recession of 2008, and put its landmarked townhouse up for sale for $59.9 million. It sold this past February for $31 million.