When your client list contains names like Cornelius Vanderbilt, William Rockefeller, Walter P. Chrysler Jr., John Jacob Astor, Andrew Mellon, and J. P. Morgan, you know you are rolling in some elite circles and you have been in business for years.
M. Knoedler & Co., founded in 1846 was an art gallery for the rich and powerful, It had a reputation for selling paintings from the Old Masters of Europe and then transitioned into selling some of the leading abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
Ann Freedman was the director of the Knoedler in the early 2000’s where she sold over $80 million of artwork to collectors and museums around the world. However, it wasn’t what it seemed.
The paintings were fakes, they were created by an elderly Chinese man in his apartment in Queen’s. So what do the art world, fakes, and hubris have to do to make you a better leader? It is all about being right versus being correct.
Being Right vs Being Correct
Being right is subjective, it is all about you and how you feel. It is opinion based. You are always going to be right about what your tastes are. If you think wine tastes delicious, you are right, but you are not correct.
Being correct is fact-based. Evidence reveals the answer to be what the answer is not, what you hope it is.
The Downfall
Freedman must have been under a lot of pressure. There is a lot of money at stake, people who demand the unachievable and never get no for an answer. When these paintings started to arrive from questionable origins, it was too good to be true but it was what Freedman needed. She either ignored the evidence or she knew what she was doing.
The most telling deception in the forgery is when a signature on one of the Pollock’s was spelt without the C. Even when that telling revelation happened Freedman didn’t want to be correct, she wanted to be right.
She doubled down and said it couldn’t possibly be a fake because the mistake was too obvious. She was blinded by her desire to be right or to protect her crime, or her ego, or any number of things. The bottom line was she was not brave enough to admit her mistake.
Lead from Learning
We all have to start from being right. We have to put a position out in the world. I think we should do this because of these reasons. Then we have to test that idea.
The testing allows us to learn, and we then get a chance to figure out if we were correct. This is where the learning takes place.
When being right is more important than being correct no learning happens. Freedman happens. Lies and deceit become the values of your team and organisation.
When learning is important we can acknowledge what we thought, incorporate what we have found out and make a new assumption about what is right and continue the process as often as required.
Being right is the easier, sweeter elixir. It feeds the ego and feels good, but it is illusory and hollow. Being correct is harder because the quest is never ending, it reveals our flaws and failures, but it gets you so much further and is so much more rewarding.
Fake Pollock, wrong spelt signature. Cognitive dissonance.
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe 