Trustees of artist Frida Kahlo's estate have denounced as forgeries a private collection purporting to own 1,200 artefacts and undiscovered works by the renowned Mexican artist.
The group's statement aimed to cast doubt on the collection of Carlos and Leticia Noyola, which is displayed at a central Mexico museum and appears in two recently books about Kahlo's art.
The Noyolas said in a statement that they had been "falsely accused" and maintained that the artwork is genuine.
Experts said yesterday the trove of 1,200 art works displayed at the prominent gallery in San Miguel Allende in central Mexico are forgeries.
"The works in question are not authentic," Hilda Trujillo, director of the Frida Kahlo museum, told AFP.
"All of the pieces are signed exactly the same way, while Frida used different signatures," she said.
"Nowhere is this trove of works documented - much less a reserve of this size," said Carlos Phillips Olmedo, another expert affiliated with the Kahlo Museum.
The couple who owns the pieces, which include oil paintings, sketches, letters and other documents, claim to have purchased them in 2005.
Law enforcement officials said no criminal charges had been filed against the couple, because they are alleged simply to have claimed that the works were by Kahlo, and not to have actually created the forgeries.
Frida Kahlo, who lived from 1907 to 1954, is best known for her haunting self portraits, but she also celebrated women and indigenous traditions in her surrealistic paintings.
PA/AFP