Art Forgery Stories New York
The fake Rothko that sold for $8.3 million
A celebrated Manhattan gallery sold the painting. Federal prosecutors traced the scheme to a home studio in Queens.
Domenico and Eleanore De Sole paid $8.3 million for what they believed was a Mark Rothko. They bought it through Knoedler, one of New York’s best-known galleries. The canvas was later exposed as a fake.
According to a federal indictment, Pei Shen Qian painted works in the styles of Rothko, Jackson Pollock and other Abstract Expressionists at home in Queens. Intermediaries supplied a history of ownership that made these unfamiliar paintings sound like discoveries from private hands.
The De Soles took Knoedler and its former director to court. The defendants disputed that they knowingly sold a fake, and the civil trial ended in a settlement in 2016. The case shows how a credible dealer and a plausible provenance can reinforce each other before anyone tests the painting.
