Judge rules for artist Peter Doig, who says 'Pete Doige' painting once valued at $10M wasn't his
A federal judge in Chicago has ruled against a painting owner who sued the artist Peter Doig for declaring he didn’t create the artwork.
U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman ruled on Tuesday against the artwork owner, Robert Fletcher, who said Doig’s declaration caused the value of painting to plummet. At one point, the painting was valued at more than $10 million. The Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Chicago Sun-Times have stories.
Feinerman says the evidence shows the painting was by the late Peter Edward Doige, a carpenter who created the painting in 1976 while in a Canadian prison for possessing LSD. Fletcher was a correctional officer who paid $100 for the painting, a surrealistic Western landscape. The artwork was signed “1976 Pete Doige.”
Doig testified in the bench trial that he didn’t create the art, and produced records showing he was in high school and working on oil rigs in the 1970s. Doige’s sister testified her brother had served time in prison, he liked to paint, and the signature on the art was his.
The ruling is also a defeat for a second plaintiff, the Bartlow Art Gallery, which had been hired by Fletcher to sell the painting. The suit had alleged tortious interference with prospective economic advantage.
After the decision, Doig issued a statement that called the verdict a “long overdue vindication of what I have said from the beginning four years ago: a young talented artist named Pete Edward Doige painted this work, I did not.”
