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A former artwork adviser to stars together with Leonardo DiCaprio has pleaded responsible to defrauding shoppers out of $6.5mn to fund what prosecutors declare was a “lavish” New York Metropolis life-style.
Lisa Schiff, who ran a up to date artwork advising enterprise in Manhattan, had brokered offers for works by artists equivalent to Wangechi Mutu, Sarah Lucas and Chloe Smart, however filed for chapter earlier this 12 months after being sued by former prospects.
On Thursday, US federal prosecutors mentioned she had pleaded responsible to at least one depend of wire fraud in “reference to the acquisition and sale of roughly 55 artworks”.
They claimed Schiff — who had a roster of high-profile prospects — pocketed cash from her shoppers with which she was supposed to purchase artwork, and diverted proceeds from the sale of sure works.
In complete, Schiff defrauded “not less than twelve shoppers, one artist, the property of one other artist, and one gallery”, in response to New York federal prosecutors.
“For years, Lisa Schiff breached the belief of her artwork advisory shoppers by mendacity to them and diverting thousands and thousands of {dollars} her shoppers had entrusted to her,” Manhattan US lawyer Damian Williams mentioned in a press release following the settlement.
A lawyer for Schiff, Randy Zelin, mentioned the plea settlement confirmed his shopper “has accepted duty . . . and can proceed to work to make amends”.
“That is one snapshot in a photograph album full of good work [and] professionalism,” Zelin added. “I do hope that she goes again to enjoying a task within the artwork world.”
Schiff had been a distinguished determine within the metropolis’s artwork scene because the launch of her SFA Advisory in 2002, and went on to open her personal gallery in Tribeca in 2019.
Final 12 months, she was accused of fraud in two civil lawsuits, together with one introduced by collector Candace Barasch, who claimed Schiff owed her not less than $2.5mn for artwork purchases by no means absolutely accomplished. Schiff’s firm filed for Chapter 7 chapter safety in January.
Schiff is scheduled to be sentenced subsequent 12 months. She faces a most of 20 years behind bars, though prosecutors agreed to hunt a jail sentence of not more than 51 months in her plea settlement.
Her assortment, which incorporates artworks by Damien Hirst, is about to be auctioned at Phillips in New York subsequent month as a part of the chapter course of.
