The Guardian’s weekend supplement published a story about Andy Warhol works, but it was more than this. The main subject was a scandalous fraud in the contemporary art world.
In 1962 just after creating his famous soup cans, Warhol began work on 100 wooden sculptures of packing containers: Brillo boxes.
However, what was done in the past is now a big scandal for the art world, where the wooden boxes are currently causing a big misunderstanding.
Everything started with Brian Balfour-Oatts, a British art dealer who found the Brillo boxes that he assumed belonged to Warhol.
He was sure because of Pontus Hultan, a seminal figure in the contemporary art world who provided impeccable provenance for the pieces, ensured the authenticity of the wooden boxes.
Later on, Balfour-Oatts sold 10 of the boxes through Christie’s to a buyer for 475,650 pounds.
However, after his success of selling the boxes, Balfour-Oats received a letter. He was sued because there was a problem with the wooden Brillo boxes. It was alleged that the boxes were not original and they did not belong to Warhol. With deep research, it was discovered that Hulton created an extra 100 wooden boxes and offered them to the contemporary art market.
When Olle Granath, a personal friend of Hulton, said there had been no wooden Brillo boxes on display in Sweden in 1968, all eyebrows raised and discussion began in the art world about Warhol works. The boxes that had sold for millions of pounds were not real.
The Andy Warhol Foundation took on the case and checked the originality of the works.
Apparently, it turns out that not only the wooden boxes, but also plenty of other works are not genuine.
The self-portrait of Warhol, said to be part of his Red Series, was discovered to be a fake. The foundation explained that this series of self-portraits was produced by an outside printer.
While the chaos continued in the art world, everyone was furious. Some Warhol works had earned a rate of return over 27 percent for investors over the last four decade and now everything was collapsing.
The trial is expected to start this winter and will not be restricted to the Red Series or the Brillo Boxes.
The trial will also scrutinize an unsigned, un-numbered Marilyn Monroe print. It seems like the contemporary art world will continue to see catastrophes and struggle with fraudulent Warhol works.