How Authentication Lawsuits Hurt the Art Market

Collectors, artists and lawyers, in last Saturday’s The Economist, outlines how the increasing problem of authentication lawsuits is hurting the art market. But is it really? Maybe with modernist and pre-modernist works, because recent auction results for contemporary art show otherwise.

Via The Economist:

The fear of lawsuits makes experts whisper and dodge. For instance, the catalogue raisonné of Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese-American sculptor, won’t be a real catalogue raisonné, says the project’s manager, Shaina Larrivee. To reduce liability, she says, it will be published as an online-only, ever-modifiable work-in-progress. It’s harder to sue “a constantly moving target”, as another expert puts it. Ms Larrivee says that the foundation will keep quiet if it sees an apparently fake Noguchi on sale.