While the European Fine Art Foundation estimated a robust $57.3 billion in global art sales last year, the number of fake artworks on the market  and hanging in museums could also be on the rise, reports Fortune. One reason is that art experts and authenticators are less inclined today to question or back up authenticity due to potential litigation from collectors and others.

Art and antiques dealer associations, shows with vetting committees, and auctions that provide guarantees are part of the safety net in the buying process. But the validation for some artists' work as saleable is authentication from a known committee, such as the artist's foundation, or a catalogue raisonne researcher. In some cases, that process is getting harder.

Stacy Perman writes that a number of artists’ estates and foundations—including those representing Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jackson Pollock—have chosen to disband, unwilling to open themselves up to further legal entanglements.

“One year our legal bill ran up $7 million,” Joel Wachs, the Andy Warhol Foundation’s director, said to Fortune. “The cost to defend them became so great, we got tired of giving money to lawyers. We’d rather be giving it to artists.”