Life goes on at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, even as it plans an appeal of the recent New York State Surrogate's Court decision that awarded Edward Hayes $7.2 million for his services as the lawyer for the Warhol estate. The foundation is the estate's main beneficiary.
The foundation has now set up a special committee to authenticate artwork by Warhol. Vincent Fremont, the sole sales agent, had been the only person who could officially declare a Warhol authentic. But the foundation has apparently decided there is safety in numbers.A separate corporation, the Andy Warhol Authentication Board, has been formed. It consists of Fremont; Jed Johnson, an interior designer and longtime friend of the artist; David Whitney, an independent curator who published many of Warhol's early prints, and Neal Printz and George Frei, art historians who are working on the artist's catalog raisonne.
"The issue of authentication is a sensitive matter, and the more eyes on it, the better," said Archibald Gillies, the president of the foundation.
The authentication board does not charge a fee, but owners who submit artworks are required to sign releases giving the committee the right to declare the work to be a true Warhol, a work definitely not created by the artist, or a work that falls into what Gillies called "the middle kingdom," when no unanimous decision by the committee can be made.