Fine Art Registry and Forensics in Art

In the early 1980s I lived in NY City. I am a great admirer of Abstract Expressionism. There was a small gallery on Fifth Avenue and 8th Street in Greenwich Village. One day I walked past this new gallery and there was a whole show of Abstract Expressionist paintings all by one artist, and all in the style of Jackson Pollock. It was a one man show. I came back a few days later and they were gone. The owner of the gallery gave me the name and the Brooklyn address of the artist.

My husband and I went over there to his studio and there were all these Jackson Pollock like paintings. These were not Jackson Pollocks. This was a young artist who evidently was very facile and did an excellent job. These were all 4 x 6 or 4 x 8 or so - large. I couldn't decide between two of them. One was a 4 x 6 which is the one you're talking about. The other was a 4 x 8

I thought I would love to have one of those in my bedroom. I could not decide between two of them so he told me to pay him for one of them but take both of them and then decide. So I paid him $400 for one and he delivered them both to our apartment which was on the 18th floor, and one of them didn’t fit in the elevator so he walked it up the stairs. This was not a starving artist – he drove a big Cadillac. He left the paintings with me on the basis that I would choose and he would come and get the one I didnit want.

After I had decided, I tried to call him but he had disappeared. The number was out of service and when I went to his studio it had closed down. There was no way of contacting him.

It's unequivocal that that painting which ended up in the possession of the Parker family is not a Jackson Pollock.