Introducing Art Fraud: Episode 5: The David Herbert Collection

give this a try, visit spreaker dot com. That's sp r e a k e r dot com. Get paid to talk about the things you love. The Laundronouts a potentially untrue tale based on actual events. A young boy is shoved into a washing machine and vanishes. His friends try to rescue him, only to discover a magical world beyond the machine. Season one stars Ed Asner and Me, John Cameron, Mitchell, Fine j D. Belzel and bring him

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or wherever you get your podcast. I have to say that when I learned that this was one person, I was a little flabbergasted. I really was, because these artists, yes, they're all around the same period, but their styles are very, very different, and he did a good job. I mean, there are other fakes in art history, and as I used to like to joke when I gave talks, the best fakes are still hanging on people's walls. You know

they don't even know or suspect that their fakes. By two thousand two, an unlikely trio of con artists had grown rich from their forgery Schemepra Rosalez had worked her charms and unearthed a dazzling collection of abstract Expressionist paintings destined for Ann Friedman to acquire for the Knodler Gallery,

and convinced herself that the works were genuine. She was desperate to squeeze every dollar of profit she could from the mysterious works works that had no provenance, and had bought the paintings for unthinkably low prices and sold them at sky high markups. The profit margin was so high that the Knodler had come to rely on the mr X Junior Collection for its very survival. Meanwhile, the fraudsters

were living the American dream. Carlos Bergantino's The Ideas man Patient Kuon the artist and Glepa Rosalez, the resourceful salesperson, had executed a scheme that was paying enormous dividends. Along with rising profits, however, came increased risk. By two thousand two, Jack and Fan Levy had spent upwards a four point three million dollars acquiring master works from Knodler. The biggest prize was a two million dollar Jackson pollock, identified simply

as untitled ninety nine. It had a greenish cast and measured twelve by eighteen inches. It was small for a pollock, but impressive all the same. Before the sale could be finalized, however, Jack Levy insisted that the pollock be vetted by Eye Far the International Foundation for Art rest Church. Up to this point, none of the works brought in by Glafira Rosalee had been subjected to forensic scrutiny, and Friedman was so convinced of the works authenticity that she readily agreed

to the Leavi's terms. The work was already owned by Jack Levey, so Noodler was not quote the client or the person who submitted the work to eye FAR. There's a lot of misunderstanding in the field about that. I am Sharon Flesher. I'm executive director of the International Foundation for Art Research, which is much better known under the acronym by FAR. By far as experts provide a thorough and impartial analysis of visual works of art through provenance

research and forensic testing. I FAR is also well known for their pioneering work and art theft, having created the first database of stolen art. I spoke with Sharon in her corner office overlooking the New York Public Library. I FAR, now a fifty year old institution, works with researchers and forensics experts to help authenticate artwork submitted from all over the world. Jack Levy purchased his pollock from the Knodler

with no inkling that it might be fake. Signing up for an eye FAR analysis was a mere legal nicety, or so he thought, despite the many pollocks that came through I Far. Sharon too had no doubts that the Levy pollock would prove to be right maas initial assumption was, of course, this would be great, We're going to find a new pollock, because it would never entered my mind that a work that wouldn't be good would have been

sold through the no legality. Sharon was unaware of the deal Jack Levy had struck with Ann Friedman and Knodler, but to her, having the sale of the pollock be contingent upon I Far determination of authenticity made a lot of sense. My logic said to me that someone who purchases a seventh figure work from a reputable gallery, if the work turns out not to be what that person hopes and expects it to be, that they will turn right around to the gallery and try to get their

money back. Usually, when a buyer asks a gallery for their money back, the gallery writes them a check instantly, as a matter of course, reputations, after all, are at stake. But what if the gallery insists the painting Israel and refuses to give the buyer their money back. Acting on her gut, Sharon took an extra measure to protect herself and I Far I insisted that the node Le Gallery sign an agreement saying they would not sue because there

would be nothing protecting us. Because if we didn't come up with the positive review, I assumed we would. I could just see exactly what would happen. It would be returned, you'd get the money back, and then the gallery would say, well, how can you prove that it's not you're defaming our name, our character or whatever. It was just a vision I had, and so I insisted that they signed something, and they did.

I Far began working on the Levy Pollock using the same methods they would apply to any painting submitted for authenticity. There are some steps that are consistent for every painting, and then each project takes on a slight life of its own. So we are very committed in general to what I like to think of as a three pronged process,

which is scholarly research, connoisseurship, the expert eyes. We had actually quite a few specialists who examined this work, in some cases more than once, and the physical properties of the work, which sometimes includes detailed lab examination forensic examination. Right away, the scholarly research aspect of I far work turned up red flags for starters. The paintings lack of

provenance was a problem for Sharon. We were sent the skimpiest possible provenance information that one can be sent for a work that is of a major artist and of seven figure value, essentially nothing. And I actually personally called Anne I Knew and and Culture to give them the benefit of the doubt, saying we can be more helpful on this project if you supply more information to us.

And at that time she actually said, you're researching the provenance, as I said, of course, we always research the provenance. What did you think? And she said, I thought you would just bring experts together to look at the work and say whether it's good. I said, we're doing that

as well. But of course we researched the provenance and was in a predicament I far as work was thorough and consistent, and because Jack Levy had officially submitted the work to I Far, not Nodler, there was nothing Anne could do to finesse her way out of the problem. Sitting on Sharon's desk, the deeper I Far dug into the history of the Levy Pollock the more nervous and seemed to become for Sharon. The backstory just wasn't adding up. It was just simply said and relayed to us. It

was acquired through Osorio. This was it. The Osorio story conjured up by Gaelphrozalice had now made its way through Ann Friedman to Sharon and I Far. Alfonso Osario had died, but his longtime partner Ted Dragon was still alive. So I contacted Dragon simply to find out, after he lived with Osario from many years, could he provide information? Is he familiar with this work? Is he aware of Osorio ever having dealt with it? And what was Ted Dragon's reaction?

He had never seen the work. He didn't think there was any connection whatsoever to Osario, because had there been, given his intimate relationship with Osario over so many years and particularly at that period, that he would have known if there was a connection. And we did other research as well, and we could find nothing to substantiate the Osario connection. The Osorio provenance was crumbling under scrutiny from I Far. The whole notion of Osorio serving as a

middleman between dealers and artists want nowhere. But what about the painting itself. This particular work was canvas mountain on masonite, which is a type of fiberboard. Paula did have canvases mounted on masonite. In this case, it was mounted on the rough side of the masonite. Most of the ones of his that were mounted were mounted on the smooth side of the masonite, but he also painted directly on masonite. I can't tell you that one of the specialists to

examine this work immediately was upset. They felt that it was mounted on that mason I just so that we couldn't see the back of the canvas. That's why they're doing it, you know, to hide this. I put here on the cover of a detail of the painting. Sharon was showing me the cover of one of i far publications from two thousand sixteen, titled Hindsight Lessons from the Notler Rosalee Affair. On the cover are two rectangular photos

of Jackson Pollock's signatures on paintings. Red arrows indicate that one is an actual Pollock, the other a fake. The photos are zoomed in to show the detail of the signature itself and the canvas. Here's the signature Jackson Pollock forty nine. That's signed on that painting. And this is the bottom you can see here, here's the canvas, and here's the masonite. When Pollock did it. First of all, he did it on the other side of the masonite, on the smooth side, and he put some sizing on it.

And over the fifty year period from nine to two thousand, the masonite with his sizing had aged and colored completely differently than the masonite in this work. How interesting. Wow, So you really had there was maybe a first red flag, for sure. It was more than the first red flag. We already had some red flags, as I said earlier, not just the provenance any connection whatsoever to Pollock. Are their photo archives that show this work in the background.

Are their letters that mention a work that fits this description? We did all of that. These were the kind of telltale details that led I far to issue its shocking opinion. We said we cannot accept the work as a work by Jackson Pollock. It is the same as saying I'm writing a catalog raison A and I'm not including your work in the catalog raisin A. We've couched our words because we couldn't hammer that nail in the coffin. Absolutely,

Anne was pretty ticked, was she not? Did she not speak publicly and disparage by Far And she certainly spoke privately and disparaged us to people, because it got back to me all the time years later when she felt free to talk about the Levy Pollock and I far As rejection of it, and would blithely say, quote, there was a recent history of bad feelings between I Far and Knodler unquote Hi far as experts were biased and implied that was why I far had nixed the painting,

where I felt she impugned our integrity by saying there was a history of bad feelings. Therefore she wanted to dismiss what we said. First of all, there was no history of bad feelings that I knew of, and certainly not during my tenure, and I had already been here a few years. But more importantly, to assert that even if there were bad feelings, it might change our report. I was incredulous that anyone would make such a statement because we only exist becau cause of our good name

and our reputation for integrity. We're not going to sully it and I'm not going to let anyone else sully it with Far's final judgment on the Levee pollic in two thousand three, and took the painting back very discreetly. She returned the two million dollars to Jack Levy contractually she had no choice. Shortly after the sale was refunded and called a Canadian collector, David Mervish, with news that she had a wonderful deal for him and was absolutely sure.

She said that I Far had been wrong and that the painting was legitimate to back up her claim and suggested that she herself, by a one third interest in Untitled. The gallery would buy a partial share, as would Mervish. Certainly they would sell the painting at some point for a fortune. Mervish agreed, and Untitled nineteen forty nine was duly put aside for that future day. Its eye Far status kept quiet, but the damage was done. As Anne later said in Vanity Fair, quote, it was a backfire

because Ted Dragon went crazy. Ossorio would never have hidden anything from me unquote. That cast a pall over the painting and the whole story of Osorio as middleman for mister and missus. X Anne asked Glyphya, could mister and missus X have been wrong had they or their son confused Osorio with someone else? Glyphya promised to address the issue and then came back with a change in the story. More in a minute. What grows in the forest? Trees? Sure? No?

What else? Girls in the forest? Our imagination, a sense of wonder and a family bonds grow too, because when we disconnect from this and connect with this, we reconnect with each other. The forest is closer than you think. Find a forest near you and start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot Org. Brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the AD Council. Hey, hey, this is John O'Brien, entrepreneur and a fellow builder just like you.

Thanks you to help with I Heart Radio and Prudential Financial. I'd like to present to you my brand new podcast is called Building a Good Life. For each week, a special friend and I will unpack and talk in detail about financial literacy building, generational wealth building, that community building, the best version of you, life lessons and whatever else is on your mind. That's right, This is the time for you to become the best version of who you are.

Using some of the best leaders in the world to do it as they unpack and show a special side of themselves you've never seen before. So if you're ready to build the best version of you, you're ready to build the next generation of what comes next. Make sure to listen to Building a Good Life on the I Heart Radio, a Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Arden Marine from Shameless and Statiable, Chelsea Lately and the I Heart Radio podcast Will You Accept This Rose?

And I'm Julianne Robinson and Emmy and Baffton nominated director most recently of Bridgetain. And we are the hosts of Lady of the Road, a funny and inspiring podcast where we have conversations with influential women about their lives and we get self help advice. We're always looking to improve ourselves and we figure there's no better source for learning how to be brave, take risks and advocate for yourself

in life. But speaking with motivating, uplifting women, some of them we've met throughout our careers and some of them were just meeting now. We talk about money, health, relationships, parenthood, running a busy, this you name it. From inspiring women like Joan Jet Nicole Buyer, Lauren Lobkis, Retta, Ricky Lynt, Tom Kate mccouchee, Kate Walsh, Shonda Land, producer, Betsy Bears

Adua and o Jen Kirkman and Moore. Listen and subscribe to Lady of the Road on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts over if would you get your podcasts? As it turned out and was right, Oh, Sorio had been in the mix, but only marginally, Sofia said. The dealer who had handled most of those paintings for Mr. And Mrs X was actually an art handler named David Herbert.

She was so sorry for any confusion. This is one of those IFFI moments in the story where you raised out one but two eyebrows and think, wait a minute, how were you not suspicious when the entire backstory suddenly shifted. That's author Maria Kanakova. Again. It shows a few things the part of the con artists, obviously, it shows great ingenuity and once again listening because Anne inadvertently told them what to say, because she said, these are the holes,

these are the things that people are suspicious of. And she even had suggestions, right, maybe was it? This? Was it that? So she threw out things that they could then use once again the con artists here, your job is to listen and to figure out, Okay, what do I need to change, what are they reacting to, what's working,

what's not working? David Herbert working wonderful. Let's keep him in and try to figure out, you know, how, how we can change the story to the elements that aren't working, to fill in the parts of the narrative that are causing us problems. Now. The other element, of course, is if you're an how in the world do you not see this. One of the things that I've argued over and over again is that it's impossible to judge from

the outside, because from the outside your objective. From the inside, once you're already in the middle of it, once you're already emotionally involved, your objectivity is gone. It's really difficult. It takes a very specific, strong person who probably would not have gotten into the situation to begin with, to be able to see clearly in the heat of the moment, and most people just cannot do that. I think that she was already so deep in the con that it

didn't strike her as weird. It just struck her as we're getting more information. It's on an need to know basis, as I need to know more. They tell me more. Whereas for us, when we're looking at this, we're shaking our heads and thinking wait, no, no, you're not allowed to change the story. If you're and you're thinking, oh, okay, that makes sense, great, wonderful. David Herbert, now the key

figure in the back story, was a brilliant choice. He was a real person whose modest life and times fit the larger story, a dealer many in the art world had known. Almost certainly, Anne had heard about Herbert through Heimi Andrade, since Herbert had been Andrade's best friend for decades. Also convenient, David Herbert had died just seven years prior, in nineteen ninety five, his executor, none other than Heimi Andrade. Into Andrade's hands went all of Herbert's files upon his death.

Possibly those files contained bits that might embellish Clyfeara's story of Mister and Missus X. From what Anne now understood, David Herbert had been more than a middleman between downtown artists and mister X, setting up sales and taking commissions. Herbert had been mister X's lover during long periods in the nineteen fifties in New York. Once again, for Anne, the result was the opportunity to access newly discovered masterpieces. One key link between David Herbert and the art world

he inhabited was the legendary dealer Sydney Janis. After a humble start in the garment industry, Janie had made his fortune by inventing a two pocket men's Oxford shirt. His true passion, however, was contemporary art that led him to become a dealer, eventually representing many of the mid century greats.

In ninety eight, he opened a fifth floor gallery on Street, down the hall from another emerging and important dealer, Betty Parsons, Much to parsons indignation, by nineteen fifty two, some of her top artists had left her stable and moved down the hall to Sydney Janis. She was more of an artist than a dealer. She couldn't quite sell any of the works of the artists. That that that was the problem. That's Carol Janis, one of Sydney Janis's two sons, who

worked in the gallery with his father for years. One of the artists who came down the hall from Betty Parsons was Jackson Pollock. Carol's father liked Pollock's work. He was also sympathetic to the struggles that came with being an artist. He bought a little painting from him during that year forty four. He told me that he bought it because poll was so poor that he just felt that he should buy something to Betty Parsons lifelong fury. Pollock would move to the Sydney Janis Gallery for the

remainder of his career. Mark Rothko came down the hole too. After issuing a modest plea. He told Sydney Janis that he had to earn seventy dollars a year to support his family. Could the Janis Gallery promise him that much? Janis thought it was possible. In the first year he made and that was big money in nineteen fifty two, over thousand dollars. Today, most downtown artists survived on a lot less, some so strapped that they sold paintings out of the back door, as it were, privately without the

involvement of their dealer. That was how David Herbert played into the story. Herbert was no figment of Ann Friedman's imagination. He was an art insider who at different times in the nineteen fifties worked for both Betty Parsons and Carol's father, Sidney Janice. Herbert. Brought clients to various artists studios, introduced those clients to the artists, and handled the occasional back door selling of paintings to help them scrape by in tough times. He was about five nine. I think he

had a little mustache. Worked with Betty for a couple of years, I suppose partly as an arm handler and partly to taught the clients coming in. He was not very successful with Betty, but Betty came over and somehow talked my dad into giving him a job, which he did give him. He was also gregarious and liked to talk to the clients. Everybody started to do was to take clients to artist studios and tried to sell them works out of the studios. At first, Sydney Jannis didn't mind.

It was something he was doing and as long as he was doing it with any of the hundreds of artists in New York who were not with the gallery and didn't say anything. Unfortunately, David Herbert's eagerness to help these far flung artists and perhaps to profit from them led to a bad end. All recalls Herbert handling money for one very important artist who was in fact a Janis artist, Willem Dacooning, gave to dead and asked him for an advance for his studio. He had gave him

what he asked for, fifty thou dollars. Then the next year he came and he asked again for none of fifty and then that was quite a lot in those days. They told him that he wouldn't lend into him, so that meant cooning at the start, selling out of his studio because he needed the money to pay for the gallery. Yeah, and the handling that directly because he loved the cooning and Decooning love of the gallery. And now they were

at Aspacaules. He was selling out of his studio but not giving the gallery its commission, and David Herbert was in the thick of it, paying Daconing for works the painter was selling for money he desperately needed. Herbert had to go about Mannie well, he let him go immediately. It was easy to imagine how Anne Friedman could have believed the story of a feckless art handler who bowed and sold works on his own. By the nineteen seventies and eighties, almost everyone in the art world knew of

David Herbert. He remained a droll character from the same Demi Mond as Alfonso Ossorio and Haim Andrade. Painter Bill Draper would give two day parties, as one dealer says, and Herbert would be there along with his dear friends Jime Andrade and Richard brown Baker. There too would be brook Aster, Mayor John Lindsay, an art Maven Marian Javits. It was an indulgent and freer time. By then, Herbert

had begun to struggle. He threw in with the distinguished dealer Richard Fiken for a short lived venture no managerial skills at Piken later grumbled. Despite his lack of funds, Herbert never lost his sense of humor. He would come into the Knoedler and pretend he was a collector. It calls a Knodler staffer. Herbert would say, I'm furious that Kndler has not delivered my art for three months. I've been calling. I've paid for it already unquote. He was funny,

says the staffer. By the time David Herbert died, he'd become almost a destitute. He had a very hard last couple of years, recalls a friend from his gallery. He was basically living on friends and really had no retirement money. As long as David Herbert was alive, these paintings weren't going to come out. And Friedman said in vanity fair quote, the fear was that if the paintings came out while Herbert was alive, Herbert might have been extremely upset and

he might have revealed the identity of the owner. There's no question that the paintings would have been paid for with cash, taxes not paid, assets not declared, and you can go to jail for that end quote. So sure was Anne about the newly modified back story that she even gave a new name to the paintings coming from Glafira Rosalis. The paintings, she said, now constituted that David

Herbert collection. Once David Herbert passed away, and said, that's when Mr x Jr. Felt he could release these paintings. More than one k Nodler staffer saw a victim in retrospect, him Andrade. Perhaps Andrade had told Anne stories of his old friend David Herbert. Maybe he had acknowledged that Herbert might have sold some of these paintings on the Slyde. Still, if he had colluded with Anne and Glyphia, where was the profit in it for him? Himie did not profit

from it. He never got a commission, so there's nothing on him, says an ex Ndler staffer. He was horrified by all that happened. The staffer adds, I feel very sorry for him. He's a gentleman of the older kind. And now all and Ratty had was a ghostly cobweb department filled with South American art next door to the gallery he loved so much. As for David Herbert, he

too seemed a victim, even if a posthumous one. It's very easy to put something on him because he's not around to dispute it, said Herbert's friend from the gallery. What should have been early red flags at the Knoedler Gallery, those early Deep and Corn drawings, that brilliant Rothko and now the returned Levy Pollock instead remained art world secrets. For now. None of them stirred any attention because sales

of the works remained confidential. As it turned out, the Levy Pollock that I far had judged to be not a legitimate work, was actually one of several to Apollox that Ann Friedman would eventually snatch up from a Rosales more art fraud in a minute, Look for your children's eyes to see the true magic of a forest. It's a storybook world for them. You look and see a tree. They see the wrinkled face of a wizard with arms

outstretched to the sky. They see treasure and pebbles. They see a windy path that could lead to adventure, and they see you. They're fearless. Guide. Is this fascinating world? Find a forest near you and start exploring it. Discover the forest dot org, brought to you by the United States Forest Service and the ad Council. Hei there. I'm Scott Rank, host of the podcast History Unplugged, and if you're dreaming of being a full time podcaster someday, you

and I have a lot in common. I used to teach history for a living, which was great, but I wanted to thing more and maybe you know what I mean. So I gave podcasting a try, and I did it with spreaker from my heart. I could explain how it works in about ninety seconds. But all you really need to know now is that, in my experience, the AD revenue with Spreaker has been three to four times higher than it has been with any other host I've worked with.

Now I get to do what I'm passionate about, teach history, but with more freedom and less stress, while still earning a respectable salary. From just getting started and doing the very basic stuff to taking your podcast in whatever direction you want to take it, Spriaker has all sorts of great tools. So if you want to turn your passion into a podcast and give this a try, visit speaker dot com. That's sp r e a k e r dot com. Get paid to talk about the things you

love with Spreaker. From I Heart. From Cavalry Audio, the studio that brought you The Devil Within and The Shadow Goes, comes a new true crime podcast, The Pink Moon Wods. The local sheriff believes there may be more than one killery. It's been four days since those bodies were found and there's no arrest as it this morning. They were afraid he's face it out in that area, what if they come back or whatever. It scared me to death, like it scared me. I was very, very intimidating to live here.

Crazy to think you go to sleep one night, maybe snuggling with your loved one, and never wake up, or maybe you wake up in a struggle for your life, which you lose. Joint host David Radamant as he explores one fateful night when evil descended upon small town, Ohio killed eight members of an Ohio family in a pre planned execution. The family was targeted, most of them targeted

while they were sleeping. Follow the Pink Moon murders on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, no one knew the true story of the Knodler Galleries finances. Later, when the galleries money manager testified at trial, he would say that the paintings of the David Herbert collection were not merely helpful to the

galleries bottom line, they were essential. Without those sales, the k Noodler would have been losing big money by two thousand four, Thanks to a paintings the Ndler was at least getting by Joe Stephens, the noted is long serving art handler since the true state of the gallery, when he was abruptly fired after nearly forty five years on the job. My heart and soul was in that place. I loved work in there, and I was good at it.

To be honest, I wanted to kill her. I hated her guts and I don't hate anybody, but she made life miserable for me and the girls by keeping him there. Everything. She walked three blocks and she's home. I think she knew that. I knew things were going on. That's probably why I got dumped. I don't know for sure. Can we put it that way as your suspicion? And was now squarely focused on selling works from the David Herbert collection,

and that was becoming a very dangerous enterprise. By two thousand five, the contemporary art market had soared thanks to a fivefold increase in new billionaires since the nineteen eighties. And the billionaires loved contemporary art. They loved the status it conferred to. Most of all, they loved the profits many contemporary artists were generating. The new meme was art as an asset. The market was now more than a place to buy and sell art, It was a lifestyle.

Wealthy collectors jetted to art fares around the world, greeting each other like old friends. They attended glittering parties held by the biggest and most powerful dealers at the Venice Bionale at Art Basel in Switzerland and at the Freeze Fairs in London, l A and New York. Entree to the club didn't require old money or expertise in art, not anymore. All you needed to join the club with money and a willingness to spend it. Art has become the status symbol, as dealer Gavin Brown put it, the

lingua franca of the wealthy. At some point in the early two thousand's, Clafira and Carlos attempted to open their own gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. It was aloft on nineteen Street. Carlos called it King's Fine Art. Records suggest he staged exactly one opening a trio of Cuban American artists who went Nowherefra found the gallery ridiculous. You know, he was a show off, and

he wants to presume that he was a businessman. Of course, did you work with him at that gallery or no? They will not really like I said so occasionally in and and she was the one who was putting it together. The Chelsea Loft that Carlos opened was a bush league effort to join the art market in earnest serious dealers. Those who, for starters, dealt in authentic art were in a whole other world, one that Carlos and could only

dream of. By now, the best abstract expressionist works were all but impossible to acquire unless she were willing to pay stratospheric prices. Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin would become famous for buying a Dacooning and a Pollock in a package deal for five hundred million dollars. With all this frenzy, the contemporary art market rose from roughly twenty billion in two thousand to sixty three billion in two thousand eight. In the midst of this hyperactive market, Anne had begun

publicly showcasing works from the David Abert collection. The mecca for New York art dealers was the annual Armory Show, hosted by the Art Dealers Association of America or a d a a. The Park Avenue Armory is a vast, high vaulted space that once sheltered Union military troops and

their horses. Any dealer worth their salt was compelled to rent a booth at the Armory Show, seemingly confident that her latest works from the David Herbert collection were genuine, and began displaying the paintings at each A D A A show. Every time we got a painting from Glafira, we'd hang it in the Knoedler's booth at the Armory, and later told Vanity Fair had anyone found anything wrong, she noted, believe me, I would have been told take

that down off the wall. She would never take more than one of those to the Armory Show, notes one ex staffer. It might be flanked by a great Milton Avery landscape, or maybe a Robert Motherwell. So it was surrounded by the Creme de la creme with impeccable provenance. It wasn't some po dunk Pollock. Another ex staffer rolls his eyes at that there was either a Pollock or a Newman on display at the Nodler booth. The staff are recalls of one year's display. People began whispering, you

have to go look, but don't say anything. Everyone knew it was fake. Everyone was laughing about it. But as Patricia Cohen of The New York Times notes, they were all instructed by lawyers not to say anything, why the

fear of being sued. As those brilliant but baffling works kept popping up, Freedman's fellow dealers made a blood sport and speculating about which, if any, of the paintings in the David Herbert collection were real, and why did Ann Freedman keep promoting pictures one after another that had no provenance As one Armory show followed another, and believed that

her paintings were acquiring provenance, I simply being exhibited. Dealers found that absurd bullshit, that it's a building block towards authentication. One dealer snorted, she kept trotting out this ship at the Armory shows. I saw the Barnet Newman there, the Rothco there, the Pollock there. All were fake, the dealer muttered to his colleagues. Yet Anne seemed oblivious to their inauthenticity.

The dealer said, if you don't have an eye, and you don't have the ability to discern differences in an artist's work, you're lost. I don't care how much secondary research you do, and left those Armory shows with a sense of exultation. Her masterpieces had survived another gauntlet, A few of her rival dealers even through her a word of affirmation, a vague word or two, but enough for Anne to go on the Levy. Pollock declared all but fake. By e far had incensed Anne worse, and it jeopardized

the business she'd worked so hard to keep afloat. The Nodler needed a miracle. Magically, Fra would conjure up at Jackson Pollock painting so brilliant that no one would cast doubt on its authenticity, one that would ultimately command the highest price ever paid for a work. Emerging from patient Kwan's garage in Queens must have been January two thou twenty, and he started talking to me about the Nodler case.

He was running a tuxedo so as I was a big formal wedding, and I said, well, somebody told me that Pierre Le Grande was a really stupid person. I said, I think that buying a painting for Man Friedman, he must be a real dumb shit. He got screwed for seventeen million dollars. And he looked at me and he said, on Pierre le grand the seventeen million dollar Jackson Pollock, that's next time on art Fraud Love laughs at a King.

Things don't be the thing on the Street of Dreams, Dreams broken into can't be made like new on the Street of Dreams. Art Fraud is brought to you by I Heart Radio and Cavalry Audio. Our executive producers are Matt del Piano, Keegan Rosenberger, Andy Turner, myself, and Michael Shnayerson. We're produced by Brandon Morgan and Zach McNeice. Zach also edited and mixed this episode. Lindsay Hoffman is our managing producer. Our writer is Michael Schneerson. H Hi, this is Bill Clinton.

After years of being interviewed, I'm looking forward to doing the interviewing. Please join me on Who Am I Telling You This for conversations with some of the most fascinating people I know. We'll share stories and talk about ideas that deserve more attention and why we should be hopeful and optimistic about our future. Listen to Why Am I Telling You This on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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