Lisa Schiff, a celebrity art advisor accused by high-profile former clients of misappropriating payments, has since May been tied up in court proceedings over the claims. Recent filings show that Schiff’s alleged malpractice may have cast a much wider net, affecting dozens of art collectors and institutions.
Schiff, a New York-based art consultant who has counted Leonardo DiCaprio among her clients, was sued earlier this year by real estate heiress Candace Carmel Barasch and lawyer Richard Grossman, who alleged Schiff owed them $1.8 million from the sale of an Adrian Ghenie painting. Shortly afterward, Barasch filed an additional lawsuit against Schiff claiming further fraud. The advisor has since shuttered her locations in New York and London, appointing a trustee to liquidate her firm Schiff Fine Art (SFA).
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It isn’t just Barasch and Grossman who claim to have been affected by Schiff. While they haven’t filed lawsuits, nearly 40 additional art collectors and industries are listed as claimants against the consultancy, as evidenced by court filings from August. Sotheby’s’ private sales department, Frestonian Gallery and the director of sales at Stephen Friedman Gallery are among the claimants seeking an unknown sum. Meanwhile, Seffa Klein, a multidisciplinary artist whose work was displayed at Schiff’s showroom in a solo exhibition earlier this year, submitted a claim for around $506,000. An attorney for Schiff did not respond to requests for comments.
Numerous wealthy art collectors are seeking repayment
Additional court documents filed in recent months shine a light on the extent of Schiff’s alleged fraud. Many of the claimants are not only high-profile art collectors but also significant figures in the world of finance. Thomas Hagerty, a managing director at private equity firm Thomas H. Lee and a trustee of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, is seeking at least $990,000 from the art consultant alongside his wife Jeanne. The couple claimed that SFA sold numerous works owned by the Hagertys and kept the proceeds. This occurred with artwork like Jack Whitten’s Persian Echo II and Per Kirkeby’s Untitled, which the duo asserted Schiff sold for $350,000 and $230,000 each. The Hagertys additionally allege they are owed $925,000 in proceeds from SFA’s sale of a $1.32 million Georgia O’Keefe painting, according to a proof of claim form, and are also seeking the return of several works held by SFA and valued at a total of between $3 million and $8 million.
Other claimants include Brian and Karen Conway, who have galleries named after them at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). Brian is the chairman of Boston-based private equity firm TA Associates, while Karen is a trained architect and board member of both ICA and the National Park Foundation. The couple, who have previously donated artwork to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, filed a claim against Schiff for nearly $612,000. Despite wiring around $886,000 to SFA for the acquisition of eight artworks, the Conways claimed nearly half of their funds were never paid to art galleries. In some cases, the duo later worked with galleries to close out transactions, meaning they paid a portion of gallery balances twice, according to court filings. At New York’s Matthew Marks Gallery, for example, the couple attempted to purchase a Simone Leigh work for $350,000, wiring the funds to SFA alongside $60,000 in sale commission and sales tax. After the advisory firm allegedly shorted the gallery by $75,000, the couple paid the outstanding balance.
Martin and Tristin Mannion, also based in Boston, are seeking around $110,000 from SFA for similar claims. Martin is the chairman of growth equity firm Summit Partners, while his wife Tristin is a trustee for ICA and a board member of the nonprofit VIA Art Fund. The duo are significant art patrons in the Boston art scene, having endowed a senior curator position at ICA and gifting Steve McQueen’s 2014 Ashes video installation to the institution in 2016. They claimed to have sent Schiff funds for six art acquisitions at various galleries, none of which were paid by SFA. Like the Conways, the duo claimed they have since closed out several gallery balances.
To repay creditors, SFA’s assets are in the process of being liquidated. In August, more than 800 works valued at $3.1 million in total were listed in an inventory of SFA’s assets. But Winston Art Group, the company appraising and inventorying Schiff’s firm, noted an additional 100 items that were missing. Valued at more than $1.1 million, the missing artworks included pieces by Damien Hirst, Virgil Abloh and Richard Prince. Some have since been located, according to Douglas Pick, the case’s assignee. “We’re trying to sell the balance of the inventory that we have as we still scrounge to get more inventory,” he told Observer.
