Case Summary

Précis
This 1995 dispute between a disappointed art owner and the authentication board that refused to accept his painting as authentic is, along with Simon-Whelan v. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Vitale v. Marlborough Gallery, among a handful of cases that have (so far, unsuccessfully) attempted to couch authentication disputes as antitrust violations.  The plaintiff’s theory in this case was that the Pollock-Krasner authentication board, along with major auction houses, had conspired to exclude his and other “authentic” Pollock works from the market in order to artificially decrease supply and increase prices.  The case was dismissed because . . . .