Iron Ark PLLC · Practice
Art litigation.
Title · provenance · authenticity · consignment · dealers & auction houses
Iron Ark PLLC represents investors, entrepreneurs, collectors, estates, dealers, and galleries in art-market disputes – and counsels clients on avoiding them.
Our work spans title and provenance, contract and consignment breaches, commission disputes, dealer and auction-house conduct, fraud and misrepresentation in private and auction sales, and challenges to a work’s authenticity, attribution, or value. Brian C. Kerr has litigated high-profile authenticity fights, including the antitrust and fraud litigation involving the Andy Warhol Foundation and its authentication board – chronicled in Richard Dorment’s Warhol After Warhol (2023) – and the 2014 collectors’ suit over works attributed to Keith Haring. He has also taught the legal issues in buying and selling art as Practising Law Institute faculty. Art cases turn on documents most litigators never read closely: invoices, consignment agreements, certificates, catalogue entries, and the provenance chain. We take strong claims on contingency and price other matters as flat fees by phase.
What we handle
Authenticity and attribution. When a certificate or prior opinion is challenged, the dispute turns on scholarship, scientific testing, and who represented what at the time of sale.
Foundations and committees. An authentication body’s decision to decline or reverse an opinion can determine a work’s value, and its process and obligations are often contested.
Fraud in sales. Buyers misled about a work’s history, condition, or attribution may have claims against sellers, dealers, and sometimes auction houses.
Consignment and dealers. Consignors owed proceeds or charged undisclosed markups have claims under the consignment agreement and, in some states, statutes protecting consigned works.
Title and provenance. Ownership disputes arise from gaps in provenance, competing claims by heirs or former owners, and works that passed through problematic hands.
Warranty and rescission. When a work’s authenticity or title fails, buyers may be able to undo the sale or recover damages, subject to the contract terms and time limits.
Move before the market does
An authenticity or title challenge can freeze a work’s market overnight. Securing the paper trail – invoices, provenance, prior opinions, catalogue and exhibition records – and preserving the work come first, and contract deadlines and limitations periods can be short.
Brian’s art-law record
Authenticity and antitrust litigation involving the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board (S.D.N.Y.), chronicled in Richard Dorment’s Warhol After Warhol (Picador / Pegasus Books, 2023).
2014 collectors’ suit over the authentication of works attributed to Keith Haring (S.D.N.Y.).
Faculty, Practising Law Institute – “Art of the Art Deal: An Introduction to the Key Legal Issues in the Buying and Selling of Art.”
Host and presenter, NeueHouse – “Is it Real?” (May 7, 2015), on the role of science in art authentication.
How it is priced
Collectors and estates with strong claims against a seller, dealer, or foundation that can pay may qualify for contingency or a hybrid structure. Other matters are priced as flat fees by phase. How Iron Ark Funding works.
When the network comes in
Typical additions are conservators and forensic scientists, provenance researchers, art-market valuation experts, and foreign counsel when a work, seller, or archive sits abroad. Network counsel work on assignments the lead team defines, and their work is reviewed before it goes out. Their cost sits inside the fee structure agreed at engagement – and on contingency matters, network attorneys join us on contingency. Any division of fees is disclosed to you and agreed in writing.
Coverage
Common questions
What happens when a work’s title, authenticity, or value is disputed?
A dispute can freeze a work’s market, so speed matters. The first steps are to secure the paper trail – invoices, provenance, prior opinions, exhibition and catalogue records – and to pin down who is disputing what, and on what basis: a buyer claiming misrepresentation, a dealer owed a commission, a consignor in a dispute with a gallery or auction house, a competing claim to title, or a challenge to the work’s authenticity. The strength of the claim turns on the documents and the representations behind them. We assess the claim, bring in scientific and scholarly experts where needed, and pursue or defend it in court or arbitration – or resolve it before it gets there.
When the work is questioned, the paper trail answers.
Discuss an art dispute →