A painting worth millions or worthless?
Internationally acclaimed artist Peter Doig says it took him only seconds to recognize that a desert landscape painting was not his work.
But it would take years before a judge agreed with him, throwing out a case in which the owner of the painting — a retired Canadian prison official — was claiming US$7.9 million in damages and a declaration that the artwork was a real Peter Doig.
The bizarre court case centred on who painted the landscape 40 years ago in a prison in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Was it Peter Doig, the renowned Scottish-born artist whose works can sell for more than US$25 million?
Or was it Peter Doige (with an e), a man who died in 2012?
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Chicago said the evidence clearly showed it was a case of mistaken identity and that it was Doige who actually painted it.
Retired Canadian prison official Robert Fletcher said he bought the painting for $100 in 1976 and sued Doig for disavowing the work and causing its value to tank.
Fletcher, 62, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., maintained the painting of a desert landscape with giant red rocks and a receding pond was by Doig.
If it’s not, one filing by Fletcher’s lawyers stated, “It is essentially worthless.”
Fletcher said he bought the painting from Doig around 1976 — when he said Doig was serving time on an LSD possession charge at a correctional facility in Thunder Bay, where Fletcher was employed.
It was long after he bought it that a friend saw it at Fletcher’s home and said it appeared to be by an internationally acclaimed artist.
Doig, who now lives in Trinidad, said he didn’t start using the linen canvas the work in question is painted on until late 1979. He also said he has never been imprisoned in Ontario or anywhere else in Canada.
And while he lived in Canada at the time, he says he was attending school more than 800 kilometres away in Toronto.
Referring to Fletcher and an auctioneer associate, he said, “They threatened me, they bullied me, they said they would go to the authorities unless I came clean. I was shocked and I have to say a little bit afraid of their determination.”
If the painting had been a true Doig it was estimated to be worth about US$10million.
A key witness for Doig was a Canadian woman who told the court the painting was actually by her now-deceased brother, whose name was Peter Doige, with an “e,” like the signature on the disputed work.
Meanwhile, Fletcher’s lawyers suggested Doig was disavowing the painting because, if Fletcher was right, it would link him to prison in his youth.
Authenticity disputes typically arise long after an artist dies, not, as in this case, when the artist is still living and flatly denies a work is his.
The oddity of such a dispute making it all the way to trial has drawn the interest of the wider art world.
The suit was filed in Chicago because one auctioneer who had expressed interest in selling the painting is based in the city.
“All we wanted to do is find out if it’s his or not so we could go ahead and sell this painting,” Fletcher said in an interview before the trial began.