Who decides whether a Warhol is real, and what happened when its authentication board closed?

Since 2012, no panel issues verdicts on Warhols. From 1995 the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, set up by the Andy Warhol Foundation, examined and determined the authenticity of works attributed to Warhol, but it was dissolved in 2012 after multiple costly legal challenges. What remains is the Warhol catalogues raisonnés, whose editors judge works only for inclusion in the catalogues.

The board had six members, met three times a year, and made determinations only of authenticity, not market value. ARTnews reported that around 10 to 20% of submitted works were considered questionable. It did not share its methodology, citing privacy concerns, and it sometimes received criticism for what was perceived as arbitrariness. Works it deemed inauthentic included Brillo Boxes produced after Warhol's death and a 1964 silkscreen self-portrait that Warhol's business manager had earlier authenticated.

In October 2011 the Foundation's directors announced they would dissolve the board. Foundation president Joel Wachs said it had faced legal action '10 or so times' in 15 years. It cost around $500,000 a year to run, and in 2010 it spent nearly $7 million defending an antitrust lawsuit by the collector Joe Simon-Whelan, who accused it of conspiring to restrain trade in the market for Warhol works. Wachs said the Foundation wanted its money to go to artists and not to lawyers.

Paperwork matters because fakes need it. As reported on 16 October 2026, Miami dealer Leslie Howard Roberts was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to court records, he fraudulently represented art as original Warhols; prosecutors said he falsely claimed to have acquired it directly from the Foundation and provided fake invoices.