Ann Freedman: ‘I didn’t slay anyone’s first-born.’

Ann Freedman has given an interview to The Art Newspaper. Even after settling the de Sole case at trial, Freedman is reluctant to admit fault or serious harm:

“I was a perfect mark, so I’m told, and my research helped them figure out their own scheme,” she said, describing those who conned her as “exquisitely conspiratorial wizards”. […]

What the plaintiffs call red flags only “gave me more fire to be proving better and harder what I believed”, Freedman said. “I always thought that tomorrow I’ll find a photograph of the artist’s studio and see the corner of [one of the forged paintings.] When you’re doing research, you’re like Christopher Columbus. You’re not sure when you’re going to find land.” In Freedman’s case, she never did.

And now? “I am terribly sorry for anybody who [says they have been] hurt or damaged…But let me be clear, this is [about] works of art. I didn’t slay anybody’s first-born. We have to have some perspective on suffering.”

Former director of scandal-beset Knoedler Gallery breaks her silence (The Art Newspaper)