Red, Black & Silver, purportedly Jackson Pollock’s last painting, was to take the spotlight at Phillips de Pury this Thursday, September 20, but has been abruptly pulled from the sale over questions surrounding its authenticity, Vanity Fair reports.

The consignor, trustees of the late Ruth Kligman, Pollock’s onetime mistress, told the auction house that the artist painted the work for Kligman shortly before his fatal 1956 car crash. But the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, run by Pollock’s wife, Lee Krasner, never authenticated the work. Phillips de Pury agreed to sell it with an undisclosed estimate and the disclaimer that it was merely “attributed” to Jackson Pollock.

Now, the executor of Kligman’s estate, Davey Frankel, says that the trust wants to do more research on its authenticity. “Following the article in Vanity Fair, the [Kligman] Trust was approached by parties interested in possibilities for further study of the painting, and felt it in the interest of Ruth and Red, Black & Silver to investigate these options before taking the painting to auction,” he told the magazine.

The sale has been tentatively postponed until early 2013.

–Rachel Corbett

Tags: Jackson Pollock, Phillips de Pury, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Rachel Corbett, Ruth Kligman