It's an art forgery case with a twist.
A worthless pile of 22 counterfeit drawings that were supposed to be by the late Russian avant-garde master Kazimir Malevich is sitting in a Manhattan courthouse this week while a jury puzzles over the question — who's the swindler?
It's either the grey-ponytailed Connecticut dealer Lev Nussberg who claims to have kept a stash of Malevich works at his home for decades before selling them to gallery in 2006, or the bald Manhattan gallery owner Gary Tatintsian who bought the pieces from Nussberg then sold them to Russian oligarchs, who later determined they were fakes.
Nussberg says he sold a $3 million trove of real ones starting in 2006 and the gallery owner swapped them for fakes when he sold them off to Russians oligarchs.
"They had no idea who had possession of these drawings while they were in Russian," Nussberg's lawyer, Frank Franzino, told the 10-person jury in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this week.
Franzino added that some of Tatintsian's clients even exhibited some of the disputed works in shows around the globe.
But Tatintsian, the gallery owner says he was duped from the start.
"The art is fake and that's why we're here," Tatintsian's attorney Gregory Clarick said during opening statements.
"Mr. Nussberg owes Gary and his gallery millions of dollars," Clarick said.
Tatintsian is also repped by legendary Manhattan attorney Edward Hayes, recently depicted in the Broadway show "Lucky Guy" starring Tom Hanks.
Malevich, a Pablo Picasso acolyte, was thrown in prison by Joseph Stalin in 1929 and his works were hidden by friends.
Nussberg, who fled the Soviet Union and emigrated to the U.S. in 1980, claims he was given the Malevich sketches as gifts.
But when Clarick cross-examined Nussberg on the witness stand Thursday, the dealer admitted that he never gave Tatintsian any provenance documents.
Nussberg first sued Tatintsian in 2009 when the Manhattan dealer failed to pay him the $800,000 balance for the $3 million of artwork he had sold from his collection.
Next week Tatintsian's lawyers will put an art forensics expert, who works with the FBI, on the stand to testify that he detected synthetic chemicals in the sold sketches that were "unavailable until long after their purported creation."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Jury confused over who swindled counterfeit drawings
Dengan url
http://makananrasaenak.blogspot.com/2014/10/jury-confused-over-who-swindled.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Jury confused over who swindled counterfeit drawings
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Jury confused over who swindled counterfeit drawings
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar