Painter Botero sued over alleged fakes.

In 1993, a phony work of Colombian painter Fernando Botero wound up on the cover of a catalog of pieces scheduled for auction at Christie's in New York.

Botero, one of the world's most renowned living artists, denounced the copy, which was about to be auctioned for upwards of $400,000. He then ceremoniously destroyed the fake with a kitchen knife, shedding a cautionary light on the nefarious world of art fraud.

Three years later, Botero again denied authorship of two paintings attributed to him. This time, though, the denunciations weren't made public.

Now the owner of those paintings, a local woman named Linda Scheft-Montilla, is suing Botero. She claims he did, in fact, paint the works he has since disavowed. Botero is denying authorship, the lawsuit alleges, to cover up the fact that he created and sold two sets of the same paintings back in 1981.

Is the great Botero, known for his idiosyncratic renditions of corpulent Latin Americans, an artistic polygamist? Scheft-Montilla's lawyer says he is. "It's not unheard of that an artist would sell outside of his dealer," said attorney David Steiner of David Steiner & Associates in Century City. "I can only speculate what he was doing."

A determination that Botero sold the same paintings twice would likely damage his reputation and his market value, as art collectors would wonder whether there are authentic copies of other Botero works in circulation.

According to the complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in July, Scheft-Montilla's ex-husband, David Scheft, bought the two paintings directly from Botero in 1981 for $15,000.

Scheft was told that the paintings had been commissioned by Italian dress designer Valentino Garavani, but that the artist and the designer had had a falling out. The paintings--each depicting a woman clad in Valentino creations--were sold to Scheft. One was called "Femme Habiller Par Valentino," and the other "Femme Meiade de Valentino."

David Scheft, an apparel industry executive, presented at least one of the paintings to his wife at a "well-attended" birthday party at the couple's Beverly Hills home, according to the complaint. (He couldn't be reached for comment.)

In 1996, after the couple divorced, Scheft-Montilla tried to sell the two paintings at the Chac-Mool Gallery on Melrose Avenue, a local gallery known for its expertise in Latin American art.

In a guide to the exhibit, "Habiller" was described by local art historian Margarita Nieto as a "witty parody of fashion versus obesity," with references to the Italian Renaissance and "an affinity with the balloon-like female figures of Wilhelm DeKooning."

Denials made

But when photographs were sent for authentication to Botero's agent, Marlborough Gallery in New York, Botero "inexplicably denied that the paintings were authentic and instead claimed that they were forgeries," the complaint said. Botero published his denial to Chac-Mool, as well.

"They were consigned to my gallery six years ago," said Esthella Provas, director of Chac-Mool. "When I found there was a doubt about the Boteros we removed them from our gallery."

A Marlborough spokeswoman, Janis Cecil, said the gallery had no comment on the matter.

Scheft-Montilla, who declined comment through her attorney, assumed her ex-husband had been duped. Until this March, that is, when she saw a television program on the Style Network, the complaint said. On television, Valentino was showing his villa, along with paintings that included the "Meiade." "Valentino also mentioned that he had another Botero painting done at the same time depicting another of Valentino's dress designs," the complaint said.

Seeing the program, Scheft-Montilla believed she deciphered the mystery. After selling the paintings to Scheft, she alleges, Botero patched up his relationship with Valentino and produced a new set of the commissioned paintings. "Botero was afraid that Valentino (and the art world) might discover Botero's creative cover up," the complaint said.

Scheft-Montilla wants the court to award special damages of $400,000, plus punitive damages, for allegedly lying about the paintings.

"We have been told by other people who have dealt with Botero a lot in the early years he would allegedly trade paintings to court designers like Valentino on behalf of his wife so she could get (designer) dresses," Steiner said.

Of course, the paintings could simply turn out to be fakes. Art forgeries are exposed regularly and some counterfeiters even gain fame as experts in forging a certain artist's work. But artists aren't uniformly innocent, either. Salvador Dali participated in the publication of thousands of "limited edition" prints of his own works, for example, and often signed blank sheets of paper that were later used to forge his work.

Proving authenticity

Proving that a living artist is lying about the authenticity of a work is a daunting challenge, as the artist is usually considered an authority without peer on his or her own work. The Chac-Mool director, for example, quickly cut short the conversation about her encounter with Botero's work. "I really don't want to get involved in this," Provas said.

Born in 1932 in Medellin, Colombia, Botero was inspired by the works of the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siquieros and Jose Clemente Orosco.

He traveled to Europe, studying Goya and Velasquez, before turning to Italy to study the Renaissance masters. He then turned his attention to Pop Art. The result has been an increasingly personal style that draws from all of these influences but is altogether his own.

"He's certainly one of the most important and commercially successful artists in Latin America," said one New York art historian. Widely collected in the U.S. and Europe, Botero is "very well respected in art history and certainly in art sales quarters," the historian said.

Botero, who keeps a home in Monaco and another in the hills of Tuscany, Italy, has deep social and philanthropic ties in the fashion and art worlds as well.

In February 2000, he co-chaired, along with Madonna, New York socialite Susan Gutfreund and the Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, the committee leading a premiere of director Ismael Merchant's film "Cotton Mary," to benefit the Aperture Foundation.

On the committee, along with Paul Newman, Goldie Hawn and other notables, was Valentino.