One man’s long, strange quest to prove his Warhols weren’t fake

nypost.com:

“Warhol After Warhol: Secrets, Lies, & Corruption in the Art World” (Pegasus Books, out now). “The two highly realistic Andy Warhol signatures were stamped facsimiles, not written in Warhol’s own hand.” Simon and Dorment teamed up to determine the true authentication process behind Warhol’s works.Ultimately, they uncovered what they believed was far-reaching fraud, leading to a years-long legal battle that cost millions and millions of dollars and featured a cast of characters that included a mob lawyer and a Russian oligarch.Simon, now 57, first moved in Warhol’s circles as a young man.

He was a social Zelig who came to New York at age 15. He gained entrée to Manhattan society via his grandmother’s close friend, Diana Vreeland, onetime Vogue editor-in-chief.

On weekday mornings, Simon would meet Vreeland at her Park Avenue apartment and accompany her to the Met. Palling around with socialites like Cornelia Guest and Maura Moynihan, he later met Fred Hughes, Andy Warhol’s longtime business manager.

Hughes introduced Simon to Warhol, who wanted to know everything about Vreeland, among others. That meant calling Simon daily asking for gossip, which Warhol would then relay to the person involved.