Why Would Warhol’s Former Bodyguard Try to Sell an Early Liz Portrait Through a Gallery that Specializes in Prints and Multiples?

This story made the rounds late last week: the artist’s former bodyguard is said to be selling despite a cloudy title. The portrait is an early Liz work. Which would make it a big ticket item. Yet the gallery who is enjoined not to sell the work primarily deals in prints and multiples:

The Warhol Foundation is asking the courts to block the sale by the Taglialatella Galleries of the painting and to return the painting to the foundation which owns a vast inventory of Warhol works.

A Manhattan judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the painting from being sold or moved out of a Manhattan storage facility and ordered a full hearing on the matter for Nov. 5.

Papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court charge Agusto Bugarin of Jersey City with lying when he claims the painting — now worth more than $20 million — was a gift from his boss in 1984.

Former bodyguard for Andy Warhol stole the legendary artist’s painting 30 years ago and is now trying to sell it at auction: court papers  (NY Daily News)