Jerry Saltz Doubles Down on Due Diligence Doubt

New York Magazine’s art critic Jerry Saltz must not have gotten the memo that Ann Freedman has sued Marco Grassi for defamation because Grassi cast doubt in New York Magazine on Freedman’s due diligence on the Glafira Rosales fakes she sold. Saltz was interviewed on NPR this weekend by Scott Simon and makes similar comments about Freedman:

SIMON: So shouldn’t sophisticated Manhattan galleries know the difference between fake Jackson Pollack and real?

SALTZ: Well, boom, you usually would expect a gallery, in particular the oldest, most reputable gallery in the United States, Knoedler, would kind of do due diligence when they heard a story as cockamamie, far-fetched, and unbelievable as this. […]

SIMON: Well, these had to be pretty convincing in appearance, right?

SALTZ: Well, look, I can imagine that faking a Pollack by somebody that’s pretty good at it could do it. Have I been fooled? Absolutely. Do I know? No. Look, if you are an art dealer at Knoedler, you have an ethical failure of will, intentional or sociopathically unintentional, to research those paintings before you dare try to pass them off as real, let alone start selling and profiting from them.

Art Dealer Pleads Guilty to Selling Fraudulent Paintings (NPR)