Art: Controversial Collection

When auto-rich Art Collector Walter P. Chrysler Jr. presented a show called "The Controversial Century: 1850-1950" at his own Chrysler Art Museum in Provincetown, Mass., last summer, it included, predictably, some magnificent works from his impressive if erratic collection. But where it was bad, it was very, very bad—and the doubts of New York's gossipy art world went beyond questions of taste to questions of authenticity. "It was hard to believe that the artists could have been that bad," explains one Manhattan dealer.

This week the doubts went down on paper. After traveling to Ottawa, where "The Controversial Century" is on exhibition...