ARTS

Forgery Fight Settled: The world’s two leading experts on Post-Impressionist painter Maurice Utrillo have formally laid to rest a bitter dispute about forgeries that sent shivers across the lucrative art market. The heir to the Utrillo estate, Jean Fabris, has decided to make peace by co-sponsoring a rare Utrillo exhibition with his former foes, owners of the Petrides gallery in Paris. The show opens to the public today. Fabris, a French art historian, claimed that Utrillo, who died in 1955, painted 2,000 works but that there was evidence that up to 20,000 certificates of authenticity had been granted. Fabris led a campaign against Paul Petrides, who as an authority on Utrillo has delivered certificates authenticating his works.