Peter Doig swears he didn't paint this picture and after two years, a judge agrees

It is one of the strangest court battles the art world has ever seen.

This week, a Chicago trial wrapped up involving renowned artist Peter Doig, who had to prove that a work of art was not his. It is rare for a living artist to have to prove the authentication, or lack thereof, of their own work.

The painting at the centre of the court case is a desert landscape painted in 1976 at the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre. That's where it was purchased from an inmate by now-retired corrections officer, Robert Fletcher.

A few years ago, a friend of Fletcher's noticed that the painting was signed by Peter Doige - Doig with an 'e' on the end. They wondered if it were, in fact, a painting by the famous Doig who had been living in Canada at the time the painting was created. Knowing that Doig's paintings are worth millions of dollars, Fletcher eventually contacted Chicago art dealer, Peter Bartlow.

Rozalia Jovanovic is the Editor-in-Chief of ArtNet News, an online news source that covered the trial extensively. As she tells Day 6 host Brent Bambury, the trial came about after an art auction went awry.

"The art dealer and the former corrections officer wanted to sell the painting and they brought it to an auctioneer, and the defendants reached out and denied authentication of the work," says Jovanovic.

Fletcher and Bartlow thought the painting might sell for $7.9 million. So when Doig refused to authenticate the work, denying that he'd done the painting, the two decided to sue.

"It was so surprising to the art world because it's generally felt that whether or not an artist created a work. . . that question should be answerable by no one else but the artist," says Jovanovic.

Doig was forced to prove that he had not been incarcerated in Thunder Bay in 1976, that he had not been in Thunder Bay at that time, and his defence team also brought in the sister of Peter Doige, a man who had been incarcerated in Thunder Bay but who died in 2012.

"[The sister] had a whole story that corroborated that this was actually painted by this other person, Peter Doige. Very similar name to the famous artist, but nonetheless a different person."

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman ruled that Doig "absolutely did not paint" the desert landscape.

After the 2-year court battle wrapped up, Doig issued a statement saying that "justice prevailed, but it was way too long in coming. That a living artist has to defend the authorship of his own work should never have come to pass."