>> flam the catalogue raisonnee in a way is the bible for the market. >> cooper: for years, jack flamarchers had been gathering information about hundreds of purported motherwell paintings, analyzing them to sort out the real ones from the fakes. essentially you're doing detective work? >> flam: it is very much detective work, yes. >> cooper: into an artist's past, an artist's history? >> flam: yes, i mean you end up knowing things about the artist that the artist himself or herself did not know. >> cooper: in what way? >> flam: well, because the artist never sees his or her work all together like that. whereas we were living with these things, you know, pretty much every day. >> cooper: the first time he saw one of the forgeries was in 2006, when ann freedman, president of the knoedler gallery, showed him what she said was a newly discovered painting by robert motherwell, a spanish elegy. she said it belonged to a collector who wanted to remain anonymous. when you saw this elegy, did you think it was genuine? >> flam: i had no reason to believe it was not genuine. >> cooper: because?