Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art
A.HARO
It began in about 1994 when a previously well known and respected art dealer at the time named Ann Freedman had started to buy paintings from a very mysterious individual named Glafira Rosales. The paintings that were being dealt to Knoedler from Rosales were considered treasures within the art community, Since they were supposedly undiscovered works from some of the most inspiring and influential artists of the 20th century. These artists included: Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, and many other abstract expressionists alike. For about 14 years, they had accumulated about 63 mock paintings. Over the years, they sold 80 million dollars worth of these paintings and were praised for these treasures. People had even sent the paintings to get authenticated and were successful. After so many years, someone had sent one of these paintings to get authenticated beyond its surface. One of the paintings had been sent to the lab and both the framing and the paint were examined extensively. After hearing back from the lab, it was official that they had an art scam on their hands. When the status of the painting's authenticity had surfaced, a ton of questions followed. Everyone who had purchased a painting from Knoedler that was a so-called "undiscovered work" from a famous 20th century abstract expressionist were checking their paintings. All of the doubts and the "too good to be true" thoughts were confirmed. It was time for Ann Freedman and Glafira to give some answers and be held accountable. People wanted to get to the real root of these paintings, to debunk Rosales' story, and uncover the real one. She was Co-Conspiring with a Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz, who was previously known for crimes of this sort, to help orchestrate the scam alongside a Pei-Shen Qian, who was producing the mock paintings. After being open from 1846, Knoedler gallery closed its doors in 2011, a downfall that nobody was expecting a decade prior. Just in line with the closing of Knoedler, the lawsuits began to flood in. About 10 lawsuits were filed against Knoedler and even Ann Freedman herself, with only one going to trial over an 8.3 million dollar Rothko. For more information on the Knoedler art scams, you can watch Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art, a documentary on Netflix.
Glafira Rosales and Knoedler Gallery Art Fraud