Who the *#$% Is Jackson Pollock?

          I really enjoyed this film.  You had the art world vs. Teri Horton over a painting that, with evidence, can be strongly believed to be painted by Jackson Pollock.  Here is what I found a little ridiculous about the who situation: neither would budge on either it's authenticity (the art world) or it's value (Teri).  During the film, Teri hires Peter Paul Biro, a forensic art expert from Montreal, and he was able to establish evidence that included a fingerprint that matches those found in Jackson's studio, and that the paint used on the painting matched the paint used in Jackson's studio.  Even with all of this evidence, the art world still just would not budge.  As the movie continued on, we began to see the bigger issue: the elite vs. the working class.  Why would a woman, who never graduated high school, have a painting estimated at $50 million?  Why would it have ended up at a thrift store?  Certainly Jackson would never have let his paintings go to those kind of places.  Because of there snobby reaction, Teri herself also ended up at a place where should we just not budge on anything.  At the end of the film, we see that she turned down an offer from Saudi Arabia, which was $9 million, because she will only take the $50 million that is it's estimated value.
          If I was her, I would have taken the $9 million, although honestly with a lot of regret and only if that was the only hope of selling it.  The whole world of connoisseurs is a very strange world to me.  Why would you let a painting that has scientific evidence proving it's authenticity?  Why is provenance so important?  I think it's about being able to tell a good story.  Good stories have drama, suspense, action and so on.  The story of this painting, as far as they would see, is that a poor woman bought it at a thrift store, then discovered that it could be worth a lot of money, but lacked the paperwork to prove to them that it was a true Pollock.  For them, the forensic evidence is irrelevant, because it still doesn't establish the paintings history.  I really loved the story that she cooked up.  That kind of thing is probably what goes on in the art world today.  Also, I do think that maybe more actually thought it was a Pollock, but were afraid to say so because being a connoisseur means establishing a reputation.  Nick Carone, who actually believed it was a Pollock, was "advised" not to say so on camera.  After his death, his family came forward with that fact as well as the families own agreement on his view.