Parisian dealer Daniel Templon was summoned before a court on May 22nd 2000 following slanderous remarks made against collector Richard Rodriguez, one of the discoverers of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Templon said in a television broadcast in November 1999 that Rodriguez was a «nut case», a remark considered as defamatory and which prompted the collector to sue him.
Templon told the court that his words went beyond his thoughts but the court did not fail to refer to a previous case, which was triggered after Rodriguez saw some works by Basquiat shown by Templon at the Paris FIAC in 1994 that the collector denounced as fakes.
The court did not fail to note that Richard Rodriguez had been utterly right in claiming that these works, sold to Templon by New York deal Vadj Baghomian, were fakes. «Still, five years later you did not swallow his remarks. It seems it remained inconceivable for you to see an amateur teach a great professional a lesson», the judge said.
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