rundate: April 21; 2025
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Known Lawsuits Against Knoedler Gallery (Forgery Scandal)
Below is a comprehensive list of all known lawsuits filed against Knoedler Gallery (d/b/a Knoedler & Co.) in connection with the sale of forged artworks. Each entry includes the plaintiff(s), filing date (or year), docket number if available, a summary of the claim (e.g. purchase of a fake painting with allegations of fraud/misrepresentation), and the outcome or settlement details:
Pierre Lagrange – Filed December 2011 (SDNY 11-cv-8757) – Hedge-fund executive Pierre Lagrange sued Knoedler Gallery and its former director Ann Freedman after discovering that a “Jackson Pollock” painting he bought in 2007 for $17 million was a forgerytheartnewspaper.comitsartlaw.org. Lagrange’s lawsuit (which included claims of fraud and breach of warranty) was the first to emerge from the scandal. It was settled out of court on October 4, 2012, with a confidential agreement (the gallery took back the painting)itsartlaw.orgitsartlaw.org.
Domenico & Eleanore De Sole – Filed March 28, 2012 (SDNY 12-cv-2313) – Domenico De Sole (chairman of Tom Ford and later Sotheby’s board) and his wife Eleanore sued Knoedler and Ann Freedman over an $8.3 million“Mark Rothko” purchased in 2004 that was allegedly counterfeittheartnewspaper.com. The De Soles’ complaint included claims under RICO (racketeering), fraud, and other misrepresentation, seeking treble damageslaw.justia.comnews.artnet.com. This high-profile case went to trial in January 2016, but after two weeks of testimony it settled mid-trial in February 2016. The De Soles reached a confidential settlement with Freedman first, and then with Knoedler and its holding company 8-31 Holdings, effectively ending their $25 million suit over the fake Rothkoartsy.netartsy.net.
John D. Howard – Filed July 6, 2012 (SDNY 12-cv-5263) – Wall Street executive John Howard filed suit after buying what he believed was a Willem de Kooning painting for $4 million in 2007, which turned out to be faketheartnewspaper.com. Howard’s lawsuit (like the De Soles’, also alleging fraud and RICO violations) named Knoedler, Freedman, gallery owner Michael Hammer, Glafira Rosales, and otherstheartnewspaper.comlaw.justia.com. The case was scheduled for trial alongside the De Sole matter, but in December 2015 it was settled out of court. Knoedler, 8-31 Holdings, and Freedman agreed to a confidential settlement with Howard, avoiding a potential triple-damages RICO verdictnews.artnet.comnews.artnet.com.
Martin Hilti Family Trust – Filed January 29, 2013 (SDNY 13-cv-0657) – The Martin Hilti Family Trust of Liechtenstein sued Knoedler, 8-31 Holdings, Ann Freedman, Michael Hammer, Glafira Rosales, and Jose Carlos Bergantiños-Díaz over a purported Mark Rothko painting bought in 2002 for $5.5 million, which forensic tests later showed to be a forgeryartsy.netnews.artnet.com. The Trust’s complaint asserted fraud, conspiracy, and RICO claims similar to the other cases. This was the last active federal lawsuit, naming a broad array of defendants (the gallery, its owners, and the forgery ring)news.artnet.com. In mid-July 2019, Judge Paul Gardephe announced that “all claims herein have been settled” – the Hilti Trust case was settled and dismissed with prejudice, closing the book on the Knoedler scandalnews.artnet.comnews.artnet.com.
David Mirvish – Filed February 22, 2013 (SDNY 13-cv-1216) – Famed Canadian collector and theatre impresario David Mirvish (via his company, David Mirvish Gallery Ltd. and Honest Ed’s Ltd.) filed a separate suit after purchasing a painting attributed to Jackson Pollock from Knoedler (Mirvish was later revealed to have co-owned a forged Pollock with Lagrange)artsy.nettheartnewspaper.com. The suit (also alleging fraud/misrepresentation) was filed in federal court in February 2013dockets.justia.com. It did not go to trial – Mirvish’s claims were eventually resolved confidentially. (According to reports, Mirvish was likely included in the earlier settlements – Knoedler had settled the Lagrange Pollock claim for ~$6.4 million, though it’s unclear how much went to Mirvish as co-ownerartsy.net.) By 2016, Mirvish’s lawsuit had been settled out of court along with the other remaining cases (terms were not disclosed).
Frances Hamilton White – Filed February 21, 2013 (SDNY 13-cv-1193) – California philanthropist Frances Hamilton White brought suit over a “Jackson Pollock” painting she had bought from Knoedler (one of the forged Abstract Expressionist works)theartnewspaper.com. Her complaint (filed one day before Mirvish’s) similarly alleged that Knoedler and its agents defrauded her in selling a nonexistent Pollock. The case proceeded in tandem with the Hilti Trust case (Judge Gardephe handled both)law.justia.com. Like the others, White’s case was settled out of court before reaching a verdict. (By 2019, as the Hilti trial approached, Ann Freedman and other defendants had quietly settled with White, leaving only the gallery and its owner as defendants in the final stretchnews.artnet.com. White’s claims were resolved confidentially, likely as part of the global settlement that also ended the Hilti Trust case in 2019.)
Nicholas Taubman (Arthur Taubman Trust) – Filed May 3, 2013 (SDNY 13-cv-3011) – Nicholas F. Taubman (former U.S. Ambassador to Romania) and his family trust sued Knoedler, Hammer, Rosales, and Freedman after buying an “Untitled, 1949” Clyfford Still painting in 2005 for $4.3 million that was later exposed as a faketheartnewspaper.comartobserved.com. Knoedler had acquired the sham Still from Rosales for a fraction of the price (around $600k)theartnewspaper.com. Taubman’s suit (filed in federal court as the sixth case against Knoedler) accused the gallery of fraudulently selling the counterfeit Still. Knoedler’s lawyer publicly denied any wrongdoing (“never knowingly sold a false work”)artobserved.com. The Taubman case was resolved out of court without a trial – it was among the group of lawsuits settled prior to the De Sole trial (by August 2015 it was still pendingtheartnewspaper.com, but it was ultimately settled confidentially, adding to the string of pre-trial resolutions).
Manny Silverman & Richard Feigen (for Stephen Robert) – Filed November 27, 2013 (SDNY 13-cv-8495) – New York dealer Richard L. Feigen and Los Angeles dealer Manny Silverman jointly sued Knoedler on behalf of themselves and their client, collector Stephen Roberttheartnewspaper.com. In 2000, Feigen and Silverman had acted as intermediaries in Robert’s purchase of a painting purportedly by Clyfford Still for $1.05 million – a work they later learned was a Rosales forgerytheartnewspaper.com. (Knoedler had bought that fake Still from Rosales for $250k in 1998, and Silverman & Feigen unwittingly passed it to Roberttheartnewspaper.com.) After reimbursing Robert, the dealers filed suit accusing Knoedler, Freedman, and Hammer of fraud and knowingly selling a forged worktheartnewspaper.com. This case was settled in summer 2015: on August 4, 2015, Silverman, Feigen, and Knoedler’s owners reached a confidential settlement, dismissing the suittheartnewspaper.com.
Martin & Sharleen Cohen – Filed November 2013 (SDNY, docket # t.b.d.) – Collectors Martin and Sharleen Cohen of California sued Knoedler, Freedman, and Hammer over a supposed Mark Rothko painting they bought in 1998 for $385,000 (through Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery in New York)theartnewspaper.com. The Rosenfeld Gallery had acquired the piece from Knoedler on the same day for $325,000 – it too was one of the fraudulent Rosales-supplied workstheartnewspaper.com. The Cohens alleged they were defrauded by the gallery’s sale of a counterfeit Rothko. Their lawsuit was settled on July 15, 2015 (before trial), with Knoedler’s owner Michael Hammer and 8-31 Holdings also party to the settlementtheartnewspaper.comtheartnewspaper.com. The terms were not disclosed.
William Lane – Filed 2013 (state court) – Collector William Lane (of New York) brought a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court after discovering that a “Mark Rothko” he had purchased in 1998 (for $320,000 through dealer Gerald Solomon) was a faketheartnewspaper.com. In fact, Lane had consigned this painting to Christie’s, which sold it in 2007 for $2.2 million, only to later refund the buyer when the forgery came to lighttheartnewspaper.com. Lane’s state-law claims (for selling a counterfeit work) were aimed at Knoedler and related parties. His case concluded in April 2015, when it was quietly closed – presumably settled out of court alongside the federal casestheartnewspaper.com. (This suit was unique for being in state court; it too was resolved without trial, around the same time as the other settlements.)
Sources: The above information is sourced from federal court records and reporting on the Knoedler forgery scandal, including The Art Newspaper timelinestheartnewspaper.comtheartnewspaper.com, court filings (SDNY dockets)law.justia.comlaw.justia.com, and news outlets such as ARTnews/Artsy and Artnet for details on settlementsartsy.netnews.artnet.com. Each lawsuit involved allegations that Knoedler Gallery knowingly sold forged artworks (Abstract Expressionist paintings by artists like Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, Motherwell, Still, etc.) supplied by dealer Glafira Rosales, with claims of fraud, conspiracy, and breach of warranty (several suits also included RICO racketeering counts)law.justia.comlaw.justia.com. By 2019, all ten lawsuits had been resolved, with no case going to a final judgment – the only trial (De Sole v. Knoedler) ended in a settlementnews.artnet.com. The collapse of these cases via settlements (generally confidential) marked the end of the protracted Knoedler saganews.artnet.comnews.artnet.com. Each plaintiff – from individual collectors to family trusts and galleries – ultimately recovered an undisclosed sum, closing their claims over the multi-million-dollar art fraud scandal.artsy.nettheartnewspaper.com
rundate: April 21; 2025
AI tool: ChatGPT4O
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