Snoopster
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Great comment! Great insight!If you read the court transcripts (Cr. No. 18-10399-DPW-1) you reach a better understanding, IMHO, about how devious BW was. He took 3 real Warhols from a friend in South Korea along with some other valuable art. BW then proceeds to hire 2 different artists to "recreate" the Warhols and sells the fakes at least twice, grossing over $200k on the fakes. To this day the FBI is not sure where the actual Warhol paintings are that BW stole from his friend.
The CA dealer who bought the fake Warhols and brought the federal suit was given pictures and documentation regarding the real Warhols because BW actually had the real ones at the time. The CA dealer paid a professional to fly to Boston and inspect the paintings in person before handing over the money. The reals were replaced by fakes that day but BW showed that dealer mostly real authenticated info on the real Warhol paintings BW had in his posession.
MOO, BW was not fleecing some "rubes" but was able to successfully sell the exact same Warhol art to very well informed art investors in CA (fakes) and France (fakes) and sell the real ones someplace else nobody in the world knows where. The CA art dealer who brought the federal suit against BW did hours of due diligence hand in hand with the Warhol Foundation to authenticate what he was buying before he wrote the check.
I hate to give him credit but BW was a very good con man.
It's a weird world when it comes to 'art'.