Monday, December 01, 2008

Members Only

Josh Baer says "it seems that the reporter at Law.com didn't get it quite right about Judge Cahn's ruling as to whether Gerard Basquiat came to Christies; as the Basquiat Authentication Committee or from the estate. Maybe Judge Cahn isn't so clear either."

I think he's right about the law.com article. It says that "Orsi claims that days before the 1990 auction, the committee had seen the painting, told Christie's that it was 'not right' and asked that it be withdrawn from the auction" (emphasis added). As I mentioned in an earlier post, Justice Cahn's opinion -- presumably tracking the plaintiff's complaint, since it was on a motion to dismiss -- says that "two members of the Basquiat Committee" came to Christie's . . . in other words, two people who would later be members of the Committee. In any event, I don't think it makes any difference to Justice Cahn's reasoning in what capacity those people were acting back in 1990.