The New York Times follows up on The Art Newspaper’s reports of the battle between Carlos Noyola and the Frida Kahlo scholars over the trove of material he bought and has had published in “Finding Frida Kahlo.” The news is that the Mexican Government isn’t taking the issue lightly:
Last week the Mexican government trust that controls the copyright to Kahlo’s work filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Noyola, a measure aimed at investigating the works. The trust is also investigating legal recourse in the United States to halt sale of the books. None of the experts have been to San Miguel de Allende and are basing their opinions on reproductions of the items there.[…]
Even without the opinion of scholars, there are several apparent differences between the Noyolas’ collection and the vast archive that Kahlo left behind.
Throughout the Noyola collection, nearly every piece is signed “Frida K.,” a signature rarely seen in the collection of letters and other documents stored at the Frida Kahlo Museum, which was her house. “She changed her signature depending on who she wrote to,” Ms. Trujillo said.
The photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo took pictures of Kahlo’s work and there is not a single image of any of the works in the Noyola collection in that photographic archive, said Jay Oles, an art history professor at Wellesley College who has written on Kahlo.
The documents in her house show that Kahlo was quite methodical, dating her letters, filing documents, keeping detailed accounts. But there are no dates in the Noyola collection.
Kahlo Trove: Fact or Fakery? (New York Times)
