"Double Denied" Breaks "Double Promise"?

On Friday, the defendants named in Joe Simon-Whelan's "Double Denied" suit filed a motion to dismiss the case.

In July, Simon-Whelan claimed that he had fallen victim to a 20-year collusion to increase the monetary value of Warhol pieces owned by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts by denying the authenticity of as many pieces as possible submitted to the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board. Simon-Whelan says he's got a genuine Warhol self-portrait. The Warhol authentication board says otherwise — in fact, it's done so twice, prompting Simon-Whelan to title his piece "Double Denied."

In the September 14th filing, the foundation, the board, Vincent Fremont, and Vincent Fremont Enterprises countered that Simon-Whelan's complaint was just sour grapes, a case of "a disappointed art collector [seeking] to bludgeon a charitable organization, with the blunt instrument of class action litigation, into coercing a panel of independent art experts to change their opinion concerning the authenticity of his purported Warhol self-portrait."

They say Simon-Whelan has broken his "double promise" not to sue, a formal agreement he signed each time he submitted his piece to the board. Simon-Whelan casts this submission clause in a sinister light, but the defendants claim it's essential because art experts wouldn't agree to serve on authentication boards if they were constantly worried about being sued and because money spent defending suits is money not spent on the "artistic causes Andy Warhol sought to support in his will."

No date yet set for a ruling on this Double trouble.