A family claims to have been duped by a Miami art gallery into paying more than $6 million for forged Andy Warhol works. "Les Roberts and Miami Fine Art Gallery are fraudsters," reads the lawsuit filed Thursday in state court in Miami, per the New York Times. Matthew, Judy, and Richard Perlman allege that Roberts, the gallery director, went to great lengths to convince them the paintings were authentic, including through emails from an alleged contact at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. They, too, were fake, according to the suit. It accuses Roberts of posing as the contact using an email address ending in @andywarholfoundation.co, not the official @warholfoundation.org.
The suit also claims Roberts was involved in sending bogus appraisers to the family home. After Christie's auction house questioned the authenticity of the Warhol works, two individuals claiming to be from rival auction house Phillips turned up and proclaimed the works to be authentic. However, Phillips claimed it didn't employ the pair, who'd presented fake business cards, according to the suit. Roberts, who previously served time in prison for selling forged paintings to customers, denies hiring the individuals and otherwise defrauding the family. "I don't believe anything was a forgery—everything looked good to me," he tells the Times.
The family not only bought purported Warhol works from Roberts, but also entered into business with him. They agreed to split the cost of art purchased from the Warhol Foundation with the gallery. When the works later sold, they were to split the proceeds. But Christie's doubts soon became the family's. The trio is now demanding all purchases from the gallery be refunded and that artwork consigned to the gallery be returned. They also seek monetary damages from Roberts, who recently told Artnet News that it's vital for new art collectors "to find a gallery director you trust." (More Andy Warhol stories.)
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