Art collector and owner of New York’s Venus Over Manhattan gallery, Adam Lindemann, was arrested in Montauk on July 5 for third-degree criminal trespassing, misdemeanor and second-degree harassment, according to police records published by East Hampton Press.
Lindemann, who owns a house nicknamed “Eothen” in Montauk that belonged to Andy Warhol, “entered private property – through an open front door with a ‘No Trespassing’ sign on it – and entered a building being used as an art gallery without permission,” the report said. According to Lindemann’s lawyer, the art gallery mentioned in the filing is The Ranch, which is owned by Max Levai, a former Marlborough staffer and son of mega-dealer Pierre Levai. Levai could not immediately be reached for comment.
The East Hampton Press also said the dealer and son of billionaire collector and financier George Lyle Lindemann had received an appearance ticket to appear in court. Lindemann’s attorney, Edward Burke Jr., told Artnet News that he appeared in court today for the art dealer asking that his trial be moved, and that Lindemann would plead not guilty. “These accusations are absurd, my client has been to the Ranch several times since it opened three years ago,” he said.
Regarding the stalking charge, the report states that “police said [Lindemann] also pushed another man in the chest with both hands. The East Hampton Police Department could not immediately provide further details, but Burke identified the other person in the altercation as Levai.
According to Burke, the dispute began over The Ranch’s broken zoning regulations. “Mr. Levai apparently has several issues with the City of East Hampton related to zoning code violations…These frustrations should be directed at the City, not my client. I am very confident that these charges will be dropped.
Lindemann, 61, has owned the 5.7-acre estate in the East since 2015, when he bought it from former J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler for $48.7 million. He tried to sell the house in the summer of 2020 for $65 million, without success, and maintains several other properties in the area.
Earlier this summer, Artnet News reported that the South Etna Montauk Foundation, an exhibition space co-run by Lindemann and his wife, fellow merchant Amalia Dayan, had closed and Eothen was listed for short-term rental.
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