Experts Disagree on Authenticity of Proposed Pollock Work, Fingerprints

NEW YORK—An attempt to authenticate an artwork believed by its owners to be by Jackson Pollock using a fingerprint on the back of its stretcher has led experts to investigate the authenticity of the fingerprint itself, reports ARTnews.

Ken and Kathy Parker, a Long Island couple, believe that a work given to Ken's father more than two decades ago is by the famed Abstract Expressionist. Four art or forensic experts who have examined a fingerprint on the back of the work's stretcher, comparing it to an impression left in blue paint on the outside of a can found in Pollock's studio, disagree on the evidence, with one saying the print is Pollock's and another saying the print itself has been forged using a rubber stamp created from the impression on the paint can. No formal authentication has been made.

Meanwhile, the woman who gave Ken Parker, Sr., the work says it is definitely not real, but rather by an artist who belonged to a group called the Kopy Kats.