Metro

Artist Jasper Johns to take stand at fake sculpture trial

Famed contemporary artist Jasper Johns will take the stand in a Manhattan courtroom this week against a bankrupt foundry owner on trial for trying to pocket $11 million pawning off a fake bronze sculpture of the artist’s iconic 1960 painting “Flag,” prosecutors said Tuesday.

In his opening statement, Assistant US Attorney Zachary Feingold told Manhattan federal jurors that the octogenarian artist would testify as early as Thursday that Brian Ramnarine lied by claiming Johns gave him the sculpture as a gift — adding that Johns never knew the fake existed.

Feingold said James hired Ramnarine in 1990 to make a wax impression of the famed stars-and-stripes-laden painting, but Ramnarine never returned the mold.

“You will hear from Jasper Johns that the stories the defendant told were outright lies,” Feingold said during opening statements of Ramnarine’s fraud trial.

“The defendant did not return the mold to Jasper Johns, and he certainly did not get his permission,” to copy the work, added Feingold.

Ramnarine, 59, began offering the fake for sale in 2010 while facing financial woes and eventually scored a letter of interest from an unidentified collector, according to his indictment.

But suspicions about its authenticity led the FBI to get involved.

His public defender, Troy Adam Smith, claimed Ramnarine had verbal agreements with Johns over the work.

Ramnarine, who has insisted he was “set up,” faces up to 20 years if convicted.

Meanwhile, Ramnarine isn’t the only person facing criminal charges in Manhattan federal court for allegedly duping Johns.

The artists’ longtime assistant, James Meyer, is set to appear in court Friday to discuss charges he faces for allegedly swiping 22 works from his ex-boss and then peddling them through an unsuspecting Manhattan art gallery for $6.5 million.

Meyer began working for Johns in 1985 — and then turned bad about seven years ago, stealing art from his boss and altering paperwork to make it look like they were gifts to him, authorities said.

He allegedly pocketed about $3.4 million in profits from the scheme.