Swedish museum says 105 Warhol `Brillo boxes` are fake

More than 100 sculptures attributed to Andy Warhol are fakes that were created three years after he died, according to a report by Stockholm`s National Museum of Modern Art obtained by AFP Friday.

Some 105 `Brillo boxes` -- inspired by the cardboard boxes holding cleaning products by US firm Brillo -- that were attributed to Warhol were in fact constructed in 1990 for an exhibition in Saint Petersburg, it said.

"The boxes from 1990 should be seen as copies/exhibition material, which was the reason for their construction," the museum concluded after an investigation into the authenticity of the boxes, according to an extract of the report.

"These boxes are not authorised by the artist and should be removed from the official list of Andy Warhols Brillo boxes."

The museum -- which said it had six of the fake works -- compared the sculptures with other boxes created in 1968 with Warhol`s permission, and concluded they were created three years after the American artist`s 1987 death.

The probe followed a report by the daily Expressen early this year which claimed the boxes were built in Malmo, southern Sweden, in 1990. It said the former technical chief of Malmo`s cultural centre, Arne Goransson, claimed responsibilty.

The newspaper said some boxes were put up for sale with the claim that they had been shown in a retrospective of Warhol`s art at the Stockholm museum in 1968.

The museum said its six Brillo boxes had been donated by its former director and well-known art expert Pontus Hulten in 1995.

sections: Culture