Alec Baldwin settles lawsuit against New York art dealer

Alec Baldwin has settled his lawsuit with a prominent New York art dealer after accusing her of selling him a fake painting.  

The actor told The New Yorker that Mary Boone agreed to write him a ‘seven-figure check’ to settle his claim over a 1996 Ross Bleckner painting called ‘Sea and Mirror’.

Baldwin said he struck a deal with Boone to pay $190,000 for the original artwork some time around 2010, but he was sold a copy painted by Bleckner instead.

Alec Baldwin has settled a lawsuit he brought against Manhattan art dealer Mary Boone, saying he was paid a ‘seven-figure’ sum

When Baldwin questioned why the colors were so bright and why the painting ‘smelled new’, he says Boone told him the painting had been cleaned because the previous owner was a smoker.

Boone even forged a stamp on the back of the painting so that the serial number matched the number on the original, Baldwin said.

It was not until years later that Baldwin decided to put his doubts to rest by taking the artwork to an expert at Sotheby’s.

He accused Boone of selling him a copy of Ross Bleckner's 1996 work Sea and Mirror after promising him the original (Boone and Bleckner pictured together)

He accused Boone of selling him a copy of Ross Bleckner’s 1996 work Sea and Mirror after promising him the original (Boone and Bleckner pictured together)

The expert revealed the painting was a fake, the actor previously said.

Boone had offered up several bizarre defenses to Baldwin’s claims, accusing him in November last year of being a tax cheat.

She claimed the SNL star and Trump-impersonator-in-chief had the painting shipped to California when he bought it, before transferring it back to New York in order to avoid city and state taxes.

Boone had demanded that the suit be thrown out as a result, but lawyers for Baldwin said her allegations were ‘completely irrelevant’ – and untrue in any case.

She also claimed the statute of limitations had expired, though Baldwin’s lawyers also rubbished this – saying he had gone to the courts as soon as he discovered the alleged deception.

Boone also told  the New York Post’s ‘Page Six’ that the dispute was fueled by sexism, saying: ‘This never would have happened the way it did if I was a male dealer.’

Speaking to The New Yorker about the case, Baldwin said: ‘Maybe I’ll have Ross paint a picture of the seven-figure check that Mary paid me to settle.’

Baldwin also told the magazine that he plans to donate half of the settlement to help rebuild a Long Island cinema that was destroyed by fire.

Baldwin said Boone doctored the serial number on the back of the painting to match the original, and when he questioned why it 'smelled new' she claimed it had been cleaned (pictured, Bleckner with two other paintings from the same series)

Baldwin said Boone doctored the serial number on the back of the painting to match the original, and when he questioned why it ‘smelled new’ she claimed it had been cleaned (pictured, Bleckner with two other paintings from the same series)

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk