“IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE" -ANDY WARHOL

The outcome of a lawsuit filed by artist Robert Rauschenberg could send shudders through artists working on canvas or behind the shutter. Art experts, attorneys and law professors are watching to see if new law will emerge from the case. Rauschenberg alleges Naples artist Robert Fontaine took work from his trash and sold it fraudulently under Rauschenberg's name. The work is not authentic and should be returned and destroyed, Rauschenberg says.The case is groundbreaking because there is no legal precedent. At stake is the ability of artists to define what is their authentic or inauthentic work, and whether an artist maintains creative ownership of work he considered unfinished or unusable.