09/25/2023
Former Daily Telegraph art critic Dorment’s fascinating debut chronicles his yearslong investigation into the Andy Warhol Foundation’s certification process. Joe Simon, an American film producer and art collector, was livid when the foundation’s board stamped “denied” on the back of his Red Self-Portrait in 2002, a work he bought from Warhol’s executor shortly after the artist’s death. Dragging his friend Dorment into the fight, Simon came to believe that the foundation was bent on controlling the market for Warhols. Among other accusations, Dorment claims the foundation used intimidation tactics—including hiring investigators to follow Simon and attacking Dorment’s character in the press—to maintain their power, and deliberately denied authentication to legitimate Warhol works so they could prioritize their own holdings in the market, even though some of those pieces were inauthentic. Nearly broke, Simon eventually gave up his lawsuit against the board in 2010, but Dorment’s muckraking articles from 2009 to 2013 alleging fraud and cover-ups eventually led the foundation to change its authentication processes. Dorment nimbly balances an entertaining account of Warhol’s late-’60s Factory days with a gripping, well-researched true crime narrative about the art world’s shady dealings. This is an entertaining eye-opener. Agent: David Godwin, David Godwin Assoc. (Dec.)
