Art collectors settle with Knoedler Gallery over sale of fake Rothko

The abstract expressionist Mark Rothko is the kind of artist whose work you look at and go, "Well, I could make that." Unfortunately for two unsuspecting art collectors, a Chinese forger did just that — and the couple was duped into buying the fake for $8.5 million from the famous New York art gallery Knoedler & Co.

On Wednesday, Domenico and Eleanore De Sole reached a settlement with Knoedler after they had requested $25 million in damages for purchasing the fake, The New York Times reports. The couple had accused Knoedler and its former president, Ann Freedman, of a "racketeering scheme" that sold over 30 forgeries supposedly by artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. The exact terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The Knoedler gallery shuttered in 2011 after 165 years in the business. Several other lawsuits were brought against the gallery for forged works, although this one was the only one to go to trial.

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