Warhol Foundation Sued For Conspiracy To Control Art Market
Yesterday, the owner of a 1964 [Andy Warhol] self-portrait filed suit against the late artists estate, charging that for the past 20 years it conspired to control the Warhol market by denying the authenticity of any independent collectors piece in order to [artificially increase the value](http://www.nypost.com/seven/07172007/news/regionalnews/warhol_board_cans_sales__lawsuit_regionalnews_kati_cornell.htm) of its own collection. In a $20 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, London-based film producer Joe Simon-Whelan said the [Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts](www.warholfoundation.org/) and the [Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board](www.warholfoundation.org/authen.htm) force Warhol owners to sign contracts giving them a perpetual veto right over its authenticity. Simon-Whelan accuses the Foundation of stamping DENIED on any work it claimed was fake, which it allegedly did [twice to his portrait](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/07/17/2007-07-17_20m_war_over_a_warhol-2.html), a 24-by-20-inch silkscreen, even though they had authenticated it several times before, botching his plan to sell it in December 2001 for $2 million and effectively [destroying the work](http://www.nysun.com/article/58512)the red ink apparently bled through. Simon-Whelan submitted it a second time in 2003, but received the same rejection, according to the lawsuit. Simon-Whelan purchased Double Denied, as he calls it, for $195,000 in 1989, two years after Warhol died, according to court papers.