And Spoutz’s art-world problems may not be new.
The complaint cites a 2006

 e-mail associated with a business that Spoutz directed, which sent an article identifying Spoutz as an “Art-world powerbroker” who was making a comeback after spurious allegations made on a Danish website. “Sometime around 2003, I had purchased a few thousand attributed artworks from a couple of different private collections,” the article allegedly cites Spoutz as saying. “The works were offered with stiff terms and conditions of sale clearly stating that the works were attributed to the respective artists and that there was no assurance of authenticity.”

Like the protagonist of the book he reviewed on Amazon around the same time, Spoutz proffered his goods on eBay. “There was a self-proclaimed art expert… in Denmark who took note of the auctions and decided he would slander my name as a swindler.”

A Danish website still online accuses Spoutz of passing off fakes by Picasso, Kandinsky, Chagall, Matisse and others—apparently before his focus turned to the American masters. The site alleges that the copyright stamp Spoutz plastered over his online offerings was an admission of the fact that the works were not by the artists, but by his own hand.