Episode description
We love us some rich idiots! And lady scammers!
It was considered one of the most exclusive, snooty art galleries in the world. If you were a gazillionaire, and you wanted to buy a Picasso or a Pollock for a ridiculous amount of money, you went to the Knoedler Gallery and spoke to Ann Freedman. But everything fell apart when someone had their artwork valued at by an expert, and was informed they had spent $17 million on a FAKE. And they weren’t the only one - turns out Ann Freedman had been selling fake paintings to everyone in town for years. So where did the paintings come from? How did she have so many? And why did it take so long for anyone to notice, even when there were obvious mistakes like the artists’ signatures spelled wrong on all the ‘exclusive’ pieces?
Skip straight to the story: approx 16:29
We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there’s this:
The 2017 doco "Blurred Lines" that explores how & why the art market became so bonkers: https://tv.apple.com/au/movie/blurred-lines-inside-the-art-world/umc.cmc.4zajoochjr131ibtlaqcs0lzi?action=play
The 2019 doco "Driven to Abstraction" which focuses a lot on the court case against Ann Freedman & Michael Hammer: https://projectr.tv/films/driven-to-abstraction/604514c3907e500001bc07f4
The 2020 doco "Made You Look: a True Story About Fake Art" which features LOTS of interviews with Ann Freedman: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81406333?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2Cb19b1114ce76a7005cfc1e579c63b3bfe52f64e4%3A898b90812c8f5361b5d9e43631e111c33ee14146%2Cb19b1114ce76a7005cfc1e579c63b3bfe52f64e4%3A898b90812c8f5361b5d9e43631e111c33ee14146%2Cunknown%2C%2C
Maria Konnikova's book "The Confidence Game": https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-confidence-game-maria-konnikova/book/9780143109877.html
This 2012 Vanity Fair article: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/05/knoedler-gallery-forgery-scandal-investigation
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