Four Picasso family members have said that they will form a group to authenticate works by Picasso, Carol Vogel reports in her Inside Art column in The New York Times. As Ms. Vogel notes, the news is something of a surprise as many authentication authorities, including those for works by Basquiat, Warhol and Haring, have closed, or announced plans to do so, fearing lawsuits from collectors who disagree with their assessments. Read More
The trustees of the Keith Haring Foundation have decided to disband the authentication committee. Julia Gruen, the foundation’s executive director, made the announcement today. The foundation will no longer be accepting requests to review artworks attributed to the late artist, but will be honoring submissions for review that were received up to Sept. 1. The disbandment comes just months after the Warhol Foundation and Basquiat estate announced they would cease authenticating artworks because of the risks posed by legal action stemming from disputes over such judgments. Read More
Longtime Dedalus Foundation board member Dore Ashton recently wrote, but apparently did not send, a strongly worded letter addressed to that organization’s board of directors that criticizes the process by which the organization, established to preserve the artistic legacy of the Abstract-Expressionist painter Robert Motherwell, makes authentications—a subject that has recently been the focus of a Read More
The Authentication Committee of the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat will disband in September, according to a Jan. 7 message on the estate’s web site:
Read More“The Authentication Committee has been in existence for eighteen years and has reviewed over 2,000 works of art. It believes that it has fulfilled its goal of providing the public with an opportunity to obtain an opinion as to the authenticity of works purportedly created by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The Committee wishes to take this opportunity to thank all the people who worked on its behalf.”
