Randy Kennedy reports in the New York Times that a long-simmering case between Gerard Malanga and John Chamberlain over the $5m sale of Warhol “315 Johns” may go to court in the coming months. The painting which Malanga claims he made after leaving Warhol’s employ could embarrass the Warhol Authentication Board:
Mr. Chamberlain has denied both claims and the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board ruled in 2000 that the piece – “315 Johns,” a series of images of Mr. Chamberlain arranged in a large grid – was genuine. But Mr. Malanga, who is asking for the return of the canvases or more than $250,000 in damages, contends that Warhol never knew about the work. He said he and two friends cranked it out themselves in 1971 in a studio in Great Barrington, Mass., as an homage to Warhol a year after Mr. Malanga left Warhol’s Factory in Manhattan. Over the years, Mr. Malanga said, he lost track of the painting and it ended up ended up in Mr. Chamberlain’s TriBeCa loft.
An Allegedly Fake Warhol May Get Its Day in Court (Arts Beat/New York Times)
