Several art collectors who have collected Keith Haring’s work sued The Keith Haring foundation and it’s directors. Accusing them of “wrongfully destroying” the value of their paintings by publicly labeling them as fakes and refusing to consider information that would establish their provenance.
The lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Friday argues that the foundation’s actions have “limited the number of Haring works in the public domain, thereby increasing the value of the Haring works that the foundation and its members own or sell.”
The foundation sold $4.5 million worth of Keith Haring’s artworks from 2008-11. It is claimed that the foundation stopped its authentication committee in 2012 raising the questions all around. It scared the less willing foundations and experts to make sure they authenticate artworks to avoid being sued.
“This case is not only about the Keith Haring Foundation, but also the art world in general and how it operates,” said Brian C. Kerr, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. One of the foundation’s lawyers, Michael Ward Stout, said, “We believe that the allegations are not supportable, and we will address them going forward.” The suit says the plaintiffs began buying Haring paintings in 2007 through friends of the onetime subway graffiti artist, who died in 1990 at the age of 31.
Elizabeth Bilinski, one of the collectors, submitted photographic transparencies of several dozen of the works and letters of provenance to the foundation’s authentication committee back in 2007. Which according to the suit rejected the works as “not authentic,” without explanation.
In March 2013, the plaintiffs exhibited works at a Haring show in Miami; the foundation sued the show’s organizers, claiming that the majority of the works in the show were fake and that many had been found “not authentic” by the foundation in 2007 when they were submitted.
The lawsuit claims $40 million in damages and says the plaintiffs lost sales and the interest of the potential buyers by the Keith Haring foundation’s statements and actions.
