Freedman’s Lawyer Releases Documents

Daniel Grant was given a look at some of the documents in the Knoedler case by Nicholas Gravante, Jr, Ann Freedman’s lawyer. These documents are meant to show that Freedman acted in good faith at all times. Here we see the Domenico de Sole Rothko being discussed by none other than Ernst Beyeler:

Gravante released a one-page letter from Beyeler to Freedman, dated April 14, 2005, in which the Swiss dealer asked permission to borrow the De Soles’ Rothko for an exhibition that the museum planned for May 25-July 17, 2005. “I am wondering if the present owner of this sublime unknown masterwork would be inclined to lend it for this prestigious occasion,” Beyeler wrote.

That same purported Rothko was also shown to Laili Nasr, a curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., who had been working for over a decade on a Rothko catalogue raisonne. A letter from Nasr to Freedman, dated Nov. 3, 2003, referred to a recent visit by the curator to Knoedler, where she “especially enjoyed seeing” the Rothko. “It was a real treat.” Nasr noted that “we intend to include a supplementary section to introduce new works on canvas that were discovered since the 1998 publication of the first volume of the catalogue.” She added that if this supplement is published, “we intend to include” the Rosales-sourced Rothko.