Peter Paul Biro, the art authenticator, lost his libel suit against the New Yorker over David Grann’s article “The Mark of a Masterpiece” that appeared in the Summer of 2010. Now he’s lost his appeal:
Biro sued publisher Conde Nast and writer David Grann a year later, claiming that the “false and defamatory screed” had damaged him to the tune of $2 million.
Later that year, Biro amended his claims to include outlets like Gawker and Business Insider that publicized the original article.
U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken found that Grann’s journalistic work “falls short of the ‘hatchet job’ that Biro’s counsel described at oral argument,” however, so Biro amended the suit a third time.
Judge Oetken ruled against Biro again in 2013, and dismissed claims against the remaining media defendants last year.
Citing Biro’s failure to prove actual malice on the part of the media, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit affirmed Tuesday.