A sale of works by an artist who is said to have collaborated with Andy Warhol has been postponed for a week while the auctioneer gathers evidence that he actually existed.
Pietro Psaier has become a familiar name in auction catalogues over the past 12 years. The works, seemingly influenced by or purportedly made with Warhol, have appeared at sales in New York, the UK and in Madrid. Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams and Phillips de Pury & Co have all sold works by Psaier, as have country auctioneers Cheffins in Cambridge and John Nicholson of Fernhurst, Surrey, who has sold the most and who was preparing his latest auction of Psaier’s work for tomorrow.
Prices have ranged from £100 to £14,000 for a painting of Marilyn Monroe, and buyers have come from as far afield as Egypt and Kuwait. Many of the works, bought by dealers, have since been exhibited and sold in galleries and at art fairs in London, Cumbria and Harrogate.
But during the summer, a specialist website (warholstars.org) began to investigate claims made in Nicholson’s catalogues that Psaier worked with Warhol. It quoted officials at the Andy Warhol Foundation who said they had never heard of Psaier, and asked whether the whole Psaier story was an elaborate hoax.
Nicholson, a big man with more than 30 years’ experience in the auction business, had the air of a wounded bear when I met him last week to try to unravel the truth. “I’ve sold nearly 1,500 of Psaier’s works since 2004, and no one has complained. But suddenly, last month, I got a call from a journalist saying they were going to publish an article based on the information on the warholstars website with quotes from the Warhol Foundation, and could I prove that Psaier existed. (Telegraph)