Department of Declarification

The convoluted case of Alex Matter and the maybe/maybe not Pollock drip paintings took a few more turns in the last 24 hours. Matter is the film maker who discovered a cache of what he believes are Pollock drip paintings two years ago. (His father was a friend of Pollock's.) As I pointed out here, two days ago the New York Times reported that Matter had apparently sold some of the disputed paintings to a New York dealer, Ronald Feldman.

Then yesterday the Boston Globe reported that Matter denied having sold the works. But that was merely yesterday's news. Today the Globe's Geoff Edgers, who wrote yesterday's story, reports on his blog that Matter has now changed his story and told Edgers that he did indeed make an oral agreement to sell or share ownership of some of the paintings with Feldman.

So the Pollocks, which may not be Pollocks, were sold, or maybe not sold, then sold, sort of.

Got that?