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madeyou

3 min read

This article, “Made You Look” by Miles Mathis, published on January 18, 2022, presents a controversial interpretation of the 2011 Knoedler Gallery scandal. Mathis argues that the widely reported story of the gallery selling a trove of fake Abstract Expressionist paintings by artists like Rothko, Pollock, and Motherwell, allegedly created by a Chinese artist Pei-Shen Qian, is a fabrication. He bases this theory on several observations: the unusual willingness of the accused and victims to participate in a documentary about the scandal, the implausibility of the gallery selling fakes to a prominent figure like Domenico de Sole, Chairman of Sothebys, the questionable legal proceedings and leniency granted to the seller Glafira Rosales, the lack of serious investigation into Ann Freedman and Armand Hammer’s grandson Michael Hammer, and the FBI’s failure to detain the alleged forger.

Mathis suggests that the entire Knoedler collapse was staged, possibly by the CIA, to launder money and bolster the perceived value of the modern art market, which he claims is inherently a fraud. He posits that the art market, particularly the Modernism and Abstract Expressionism movements, serves as a cover for illegal activities like drug and weapons trafficking. Mathis also highlights the alleged Jewish background of many individuals involved in the art world, including the documentary’s director Barry Avrich, and suggests this is a deliberate aspect of the alleged conspiracy. He concludes that the real deception lies not in the existence of fake art, but in the illusion of value and legitimacy within the contemporary art market itself, thereby obscuring and suppressing genuine art and artists. The article references past events like the Panama Papers and the Russian Revolution as part of a larger pattern of financial manipulation.

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