Kevin Hearn of Barenaked Ladies has been awarded more than $60,000 in damages from a Toronto art gallery that sold him a fake painting.
The Ontario court of appeal on Tuesday ruled that the Maslak-McLeod Gallery failed to prove the authenticity of a piece titled Spirit Energy of Mother Earth, supposedly by Norval Morrisseau, and that its actions amount to civil fraud.
Hearn was awarded $10,000 in punitive damages in addition to $50,000 and interest the gallery must pay him for breach of contract and for violating the Sale of Goods Act.
The musician bought the painting in 2005 but later learned it might be a fake. The gallery refused to give him a refund.
Morrisseau died in 2007.