Filmmaker accuses Warhol Authentication Board of price fixing

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of an Andy Warhol original must be worth a small fortune. But is that really so?

If one considers the case of London-based American screenwriter and movie producer, Joe Simon-Whelan, then the answer must surely be a conclusive “no”. Simon-Whelan has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Warhol Foundation and Authentication Board, whose partnership was founded in 1995 to provide the final word on the late artist’s prodigious output.

Simon-Whelan bought his silkscreen, a previously untitled self-portrait of the artist but now dubbed Double Denied in sardonic reference to its two rejections by the Authentication Board, for $195,000 in 1989. Before attempting to sell it he submitted it for approval in 2001 and 2003 and on both occasions met with rejection.

By no means the only collector to feel aggrieved by his treatment, Simon-Whelan has accused the Warhol Authentication Board of repeatedly denying the provenance of genuine Warhol works in order to force up the price of his oeuvre artificially. Furthermore, Simon-Whelan has publicly claimed that the Warhol Foundation has waged a 20-year conspiracy to bend the art world to its will and, by a sinister process involving enforcers, secret meetings and doctored files, has tried to gain total domination of the Warhol market.

Vincent Fremont, exclusive sales agent for Warhol’s estate, has stated that Simon-Whelan’s lawsuit is “shocking nonsense”.

On May 27th this year a New York federal judge issued an opinion that allows parts of an anti-trust, class-action lawsuit to proceed against the Warhol Foundation.

Despite this small victory Simon-Whelan’s pain continues; one of the Warhol Authentication Board’s ‘Denied’ stamps has bled through the canvas and is now visible on the front of his silkscreen.

New post on at Monday, 10 August, 2009, 8:47 am and is archived in Art, Culture, Lifestyle, Luxury, People. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or make a trackback from your web.