A five-year legal dispute over “315 Johns,” a portrait produced either by Andy Warhol or his studio assistants, will likely turn on the most straightforward of questions: Who, in fact, created it?

In dismissing a motion for summary judgment filed by defendant John Chamberlain—a renowned sculptor, as well as the subject of “315 Johns”—Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Martin Schneier (See Profile) found last week that it is too soon to rule on the portrait’s genesis.