Ann Freedman (née Fertig, born ) is an American

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...

and gallery owner. She was previously director of the now-defunct

Knoedler Gallery M. Knoedler & Co. () was an art dealership in New York City founded in 1846. When it closed in 2011, amid lawsuits for fraud, it was one of the oldest art gallery, commercial art galleries in the US, having been in operation for 165 years. Histo ...

in New York City; she resigned in 2009 after 31 years working for the gallery during a large-scale

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally consists of the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific mens rea, intent to wikt:defraud#English, defraud. Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be fo ...

scandal. Referred to as a "leading New York gallerist" by the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', she was prominently featured in the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

documentary '' Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art'' by documentary filmmaker Barry Avrich. In 2011, Freedman opened her own gallery called FreedmanArt on Manhattan's

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

, amid numerous lawsuits regarding her central role in the Knoedler forgery case. The first show, titled "Embracing Circles: 1959–1960", featured work by

Jules Olitski Jevel Demikovski (March 27, 1922 – February 4, 2007), known professionally as Jules Olitski, was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Early life Olitski was born Jevel Demikovsky in Snovsk, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republ ...

Biography

Ann Louise Fertig was born circa 1949 to Hilda and Felix C. Fertig, a real-estate executive from

Scarsdale, New York Scarsdale is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Town of Scarsdale is coterminous municipality, coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate ...

. She attended Green Acres Elementary School, and later graduated from Scarsdale High School. She attended university at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

as a painting major, earning a BFA in 1971. She first got a job at the gallery of

André Emmerich André Emmerich (October 11, 1924 – September 25, 2007) was a German-born American gallerist who specialized in the color field school and pre-Columbian art while also taking on artists such as David Hockney and John D. Graham. Early life an ...

working as a receptionist, before starting at Knoedler as a salesperson in 1977. Freedman eventually became director and was referred to by author Anthony M. Amore as "the famous face of Knoedler". When many works Freedman had acquired for the gallery turned out to be forgeries, Freedman was removed from her post and eventually resigned in 2009. In 2011, an entaglement with a forgery business was revealed in the press, but Freedman, denied knowledge of any forgeries. A lawsuit against Freedman filed by Italian businessman

Domenico De Sole Domenico De Sole (born 1944) is an Italian businessman, chairman of Tom Ford International, current director of Acamar Partners, former chairman of Sotheby's, and former president and CEO of Gucci Group. Early life Domenico De Sole was born in ...

and his wife Eleanore for selling them a fake

Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular regions of colo ...

for $8.3 million was settled in 2016. In 2017, Freedman settled the tenth and last of the lawsuits of the Knoedler affair. Her defense remained that, she was unaware that the paintings - bought through her friend from an untraced source - were forged. Freedman participated in the documentary ''Made You Look'' about the experience in 2020. She represents American painter

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

Personal life

Freedman became engaged to Robert Lawrence Freedman, son of Herbert J. Freedman, in 1972. Their engagement was announced by ''The New York Times'' in October of that year. They married December 24, 1972. Freedman's mother Hilda died in November 1997. Her father Felix died on April 21, 2002.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Freedman, Ann American art dealers People from Manhattan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Washington University in St. Louis alumni Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts alumni