Top art consultant Lisa Schiff has been hit by a second lawsuit filed by longtime client and close friend Candace Barasch, who claims Schiff owes her at least $2.5 million plus interest and damages. interests in a series of art purchases that Schiff was supposed to facilitate for Barasch that were only partially completed or never completed.
This second lawsuit, filed May 17 in the New York State Supreme Court, describes a pattern that has been going on for years: Schiff allegedly alerted Barasch to paintings available for sale.– all of which were from contemporary artists in demand with rapidly rising prices – obtain his permission to acquire the piece, take full or partial payment – including sales commission, taxes and crating fees , shipping and insurance – then in most cases fail to complete the purchase.
The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, conversion, fraud, conspiracy, replevin and unjust enrichment. Schiff and the limited liability company associated with his New York-based consulting firm, Schiff Fine Art, are named as defendants. Schiff’s attorney, John Cahill, declined to comment.
Barasch has been friends with Schiff for about two decades, and the two spoke every day, multiple times a day for many years, according to the complaint. Barasch said she knew nothing of the alleged fraud until May 8, when she confronted Schiff about money owed to her for the sale of a painting by wanted Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie. .
The Ghenie transaction, a private sale brokered by Sotheby’s Hong Kong, was the on the basis of a previous trial, filed May 11 by Barasch and another investor, Richard Grossman, who say they each owe $900,000 for a total of $1.8 million on the deal. Sotheby’s declined to comment.
This lawsuit seems to have opened the floodgates.
The May 17 complaint alleges that Schiff and his companies “engaged in massive fraud…paying millions of dollars to Schiff to pay in full for purchases of art that she never passed on. to galleries selling the works; likewise, [Schiff] did not return the proceeds from the sale of Work of the applicants. Instead, [Schiff] used applicants’ funds to indulge in luxury trips, shopping sprees, etc., or to pay obligations due to other customers, or to purchase works of art for other clients.
Barasch claims she was unaware of any of the alleged fraud until May 8, “when Schiff called Candace and confessed that the defendants could not remit more than $2 million owed to Candace and a third parties for the sale of their Adrian Ghenie painting despite the fact that Schiff was paid in full for the painting and collected the final installment from Sotheby’s on January 17, 2023.”
The most recent lawsuit claims that during their friendship and counseling relationship, Barasch virtually ceded control to Schiff, including the use of his credit card. Schiff “came to manage all aspects of the applicants’ art collection, from buying and selling artwork to framing, installing, transporting, handling and storing the artwork. “, according to the complaint. Further away: “Ultimately, the management of plaintiffs’ collections by defendants was so comprehensive and long since Plaintiffs have come to rely entirely on and trust Schiff and its entities; he it never occurred to them that Schiff would rob them.
On May 8, Schiff admitted that she had dug herself into “a big financial hole” that she could not get out of, that her financial problems had been going on for many years, and that she had considered filing for a restraining order. bankruptcy before the pandemic began, according to court documents. Schiff did not file for bankruptcy at that time because she feared a criminal investigation, according to the suit.
Schiff explained that she intended to come up with a plan to get herself and her business out of the hole during her stay in a rehabilitation center in San Francisco, where she was admitted in January 2020 for drug treatment (which cost more than $100,000), according to the suit.
Since the Ghenie case was filed, Barasch has received numerous text messages and phone calls from galleries about works that Schiff claimed to be buying on her behalf, but which were never paid for or only partially paid for, she claims in the pursuit. She believes the wire transfers she made to pay galleries for many artworks were used ‘to cover art purchases by other clients and to fund Schiff’s lavish lifestyle. “. Barasch estimates that nearly $3 million was embezzled from him.
The complaint details 14 separate transactions spanning from February 2020 to April 2023 involving works from a who’s who of top-notch artists represented by prestigious contemporary galleries in New York and London. Acquisition agreements between Schiff and Barasch have been made for works by artists such as Alvaro Barrington, Ernie Barnes, Adrian Berg, Andrea Bowers, Hadi Falapshi, Lauren Halsey, Louis Hammond, Hayv Kahraman, Mindy Shapero and Anicka Yi. Galleries mentioned include Gladstone, Pilar Corrias, Frestonian (London) Kaufman Repetto, Andrew Kreps, 47 Canal, David Kordansky, Nino Mier and Pace.
One of the most expensive works mentioned is a $650,000 sculpture by Wangechi Mutu, whose work featured prominently on the facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019.
According to the complaint, in February 2020, Schiff consulted Barasch about a bronze Mutu carvings, The seated IV(2019), which was available for purchased for $650,000 from the Gladstone Gallery in New York. At Schiff’s request, Barasch paid for the Mutu sculpture by check payable to Schiff Fine Art. Each transaction bears the line: “Until Schiff’s confession to May 8, 2023, Candace had no reason to doubt that the defendants carried out Schiff’s action depiction that Candace would buy “the artwork and Schiff would use the payment received from Candace to pay the gallery.
However, when Barasch followed Gladstone senior partner Max Falkenstein this month, he informed her that there was an outstanding balance of $252,000 due for the Mutu sculpture.
Similarly, in March 2020, Schiff alerted Barasch to a sculpture by Sarah Lucas available for $390,000, also from Gladstone, for which Bartsch also wrote a check to Schiff Fine Art. In May, she learned that Schiff had never paid Gladstone for this sculpture either – a pattern repeated for several transactions described in the complaint.
In one case, for a Harminder Judge painting purchased through Pace Gallery, Barasch paid approximately $45,000, including additional fees and commission. However, while the work is in Pace’s possession in a warehouse, the gallery will not release the work to Barasch as Pace’s invoice was made payable to Schiff Fine Art.
Schiff has also reportedly made efforts to take possession of artwork in Barasch’s name even since she admitted her financial situation and misconduct to her friend. In an effort to secure his assets, Schiff recently attempted to obtain two paintings by Chloe Wise that Barasch had agreed to purchase for $160,000 from Journal Gallery, the complaint alleges.
Schiff’s SFA Advisory office and showroom in Tribeca and its space at Cromwell Place in London have farm.
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