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A cache of Pollocks?
If found to be authentic, the collection of drip paintings and drawings could be worth millions.
May 11, 2005: 6:54 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN) - The son of a New York photographer says he has discovered 32 unrecorded works by the late American abstract painter Jackson Pollock.

If determined to be authentic, the cache could be worth millions of dollars.

Alex Matter, son of Herbert Matter -- a close friend of Pollock's -- announced in a statement Tuesday that he found a package of 22 of the artist's signature drip paintings on drawing board paper and 10 other works consisting of enamel drawings and unfinished paintings in 2003, all preserved in a storage space belonging to his father, who died in 1984.

According to a note from Herbert Matter that was attached to the package, Pollock painted the works between 1946 and 1949 in Matter's private studio in Manhattan, the son said.

"From everything I have gathered and everything I have been told over my life, Jackson probably left those at the studio and probably took a lot of other things with him," Alex Matter told CNN.

"He considered them, or Jackson more precisely, considered them, experimental works," Matter added.

He said he didn't come forward with his find previously because he wanted to clean and stabilize the pieces, and because he underwent heart surgery.

A member of the authentication board for Pollock and for the artist's wife, painter Lee Krasner, is sure the works are those of the famous abstract painter.

"I am absolutely convinced that these are works done by Pollock, and I am absolutely convinced of their importance" said Dr. Ellen G. Landau, who is also a Pollock biographer who has curated exhibits of his work.

Many of Pollock's works have been sold at auction for millions of dollars. The record Pollock, one of his large drip paintings, ("Number 12," from 1949) was sold by the Museum of Modern Art last year at a Christie's auction for $11.65 million to an anonymous buyer.

Mark Borghi, of Mark Borghi Fine Art, who is representing Matter's parents' estate, declined to give an estimate for these newly found works.

Matter says he doesn't plan to immediately sell the works, but said he will loan them out in 2006 to "Pollock Matters," an international museum tour marking the 50th anniversary of the artist's death.

"I think it is important. It opens the art world to a new chapter or a new insight into the artist's life," Borghi said.

From CNN News Assistant Marissa Muller

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