The work that Jackson Pollock allegedly painted just weeks before he died in a violent car crash has been put under scientific forensic testing and the verdict is that there is "little doubt" about its authenticity.The 20-by-24-inch painting, untitled but commonly known as Red, Black & Silver, was owned by Ruth Kligman, an artist who was Pollock's mistress and the only one to survive the car crash in 1956, in which Pollock was driving drunk and another friend was killed.
Red, Black & Silver, that is now confirmed to be the last painting by American Jackson Pollock
Klingman died in 2010 but always maintained the late master painted the work in front of her. Pollock's widow denied its authenticity and so it was never certified as genuine. Last week, Nicholas Petraco, a forensic sciences professor and a former New York police detective, who was hired by Kligman's estate to investigate the painting, analysed hairs, fibers, sand grains and seeds embedded in the paint.
The sand and seeds matched those found around Pollock's former home and the human hair and fibers matched those found on his loafers, Petraco concluded.
"The questions have been answered, leaving little doubt that
Red, Black & Silver
is in fact a work by Jackson Pollock - his last," Colette Loll, a forgery expert, said in her presentation.
The painting is held on consignment by the auction house Phillips, which postponed a planned sale of the painting last year for the research to take place.
The painting is said to be worth over US$1million.
