Renowned New York art consultant Lisa Schiff is being sued for $2.05 million by a trio of clients who accused her of failing to give them proceeds owed to them from the sale of a painting. Collectors Candace Barasch, Richard Grossman and Grossman’s wife in a May 11 filing in the New York Supreme Court accused Schiff and his company Schiff Fine Arts of “running a Ponzi scheme”, funding his ” lavish lifestyle” by taking money from one customer to pay another. Bolstering their case are firsthand reports of Schiff’s outrageous spending by Barasch, who often traveled with the adviser as the latter helped him build a collection.
According to the filing, Schiff, who was a longtime friend of Barasch’s wife and Grossman, in 2021 led the three collectors’ purchase of Adrian Ghenie’s 2019 painting. uncle 3, with Barasch acquiring a 50% share and the Grossmans 25% each. Although Schiff charged buyers for shipping and packaging supplies, none of them ever saw the painting, which sat in a storage unit in Delaware until about the end of 2022, when the trio sold the painting for $2.5 million. Schiff again negotiated the sale, which was carried out by Sotheby’s Hong Kong. By mid-January 2023, the adviser had sent $225,000 each to Barasch and the Grossmans and collected her own 10% fee, promising to distribute the remaining $1.8 million owed to collectors by March 26. .
As the date approached, citing delayed payment from Hong Kong buyers, Schiff requested a thirty-day extension, which the trio granted. As April 26 approached, Schiff demanded two more weeks, again singling out the Hong Kong buyers as the cause of the delay, but insisting they were not abandoning the deal. Grossman, who was counting on the $900,000 payment he and his wife had to pay to fund his in-laws’ move to an assisted living facility, became agitated, and on May 8, his wife confronted Schiff. Schiff confessed that she didn’t have the money she owed the trio and suggested they get a lawyer.
