Never has the phrase “Hindsight is 20/20″ held as much weight for anyone as it has for collectors and other art world observers in the wake of the recent high-profile Knoedler forgery trial.
The case was settled a few days ago (February 10), but not without the art world experiencing a mountain of frequently cringe-worthy evidence and an earful of damning testimony showing how collectors Domenico and Eleanore De Sole—and by extension dozens of others—were duped into spending tens of millions of dollars on purported Abstract Expressionist masterpieces that turned out to be fake. Theirs is the only case to make it to trial so far but several more are pending.
So what have we learned? Herewith, a few of Artnet’s most pressing, albeit unresolved issues and questions raised by the trial.