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.
Rodriguez recalled that he had acted in good faith in informing Templon of his serious doubts abouth the authenticity of these works and that he simply thought he had been the victim of Mr Baghomian. He added he had been quite astonished to learn that both Mr Templon and Mr Baghomian had decided to sue him but both plaintiffs lost their court case and were sentenced to pay damage in October 1995. «I thought I was simply helping Templon in putting an end to such trafficking», Rodriguez said while regretting that the dealer had become his foe.
The prosecutor signalled that Rodriguez had in fact tried to protect Templon and accused the latter of having showed much contempt in that particular case.
A judgement will be delivered on June 19th 2000.
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