MEXICO CITY— The controversy over the authenticity of a collection of work attributed by some to Frida Kahlo has now drawn the attention of the attorney general’s office in Mexico. The Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Trust has filed a complaint that claims that works attributed to Kahlo in two new books about the artist, Finding Frida Kahlo and The Labyrinth of Frida Kahlo, are actually forgeries, the office says, and Mexican federal prosecutors are now investigating.

The works in question are owned by Carlos and Leticia Noyola, Mexican antiques dealers, who claim that Kahlo originally gave the set of papers, paintings, and ephemera to a carpenter friend in the late 1970s. The battle over the works' authenticity has been raging for many months, with each side accusing the other of trying to exploit the legacy of an artist revered by many in Mexico as its most important 20th-century painter.