«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

Despite disbanding its authentication body last year, the Keith Haring Foundation has intervened over an exhibition that it says was full of fakes. The show, Haring Miami, featured nearly 200 works purporting to be by the late artist. It was held in the Moore Building in Miami’s Design District, and a good crowd attended the $250-a-head VIP opening. Within four days, however, only 10 works remained on the walls – the foundation had raced to court and obtained the withdrawal of 165 others. The organisers, Michael Rosen and Colored Thumb Productions, said in a lawyer’s statement that they had taken the works down “in an abundance of caution” and that: “Mr Rosen was assured by the owners of the disputed artwork that it was indeed authentic.”

In court, foundation director Julia Gruen said she recognised about 25 works that had previously been reviewed and rejected. Asked why the foundation was intervening despite abandoning authentication, its lawyer Michael Stout said: “The mission of a foundation is to use its resources for its charitable work, not providing authentication services for a small number of people. But when there are egregious violations, then it has to intervene, because otherwise fakes seep into the art market, and everyone suffers.”

-Financial Times