Adam Sheffer wanted his money.
It was May 8, 2023, and Sheffer, a veteran art dealer and former executive at Pace Gallery and Lisson Gallery, stood face to face with Lisa Schiff, an art advisor and founder of SFA Advisory, who over the past two decades has acted as an art market fortune teller for the rich, famous, and powerful. Schiff could seemingly do it all: unearth the next hot painter, find highly coveted classics, negotiate sales at breakneck speed, and defy conventional wisdom by acting as a genuine mentor rather than a stuffy art snob.
Sheffer had been a client and close friend of Schiff's for years. She was a conduit through which he bought and sold fine art. Sheffer's most recent sale was an Adrian Ghenie painting. It was jointly owned with his husband, real estate developer Richard Grossman, and the real estate heiress Candace Barasch-who also happened to be one of Schiff's best friends.
Schiff offloaded the painting for $2.5 million in late 2022 through Sotheby's Hong Kong, and she transferred to Sheffer and Barasch $225,000 each from the sale back in January. But she still owed them $1.8 million. Sheffer asked Schiff when he and Barasch would get their money.
Schiff had built a brand so steadfast, so unimpeachable, and she had counted so many of the art world's elite as friends and confidants including Leonardo DiCaprio, her most high-profile client-that Sheffer was shocked when Schiff told him that she didn't have the money and that he should call her lawyer.
These allegations form the basis of a lawsuit by Grossman and Barasch against Schiff and her advising companies filed in the spring. One month later Barasch and her husband filed a second lawsuit against Schiff and her companies relating to other artwork dealings. According to the allegations in these lawsuits, when Schiff told Sheffer she didn't have the money, she just turned around and walked away.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2023 من Town & Country US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2023 من Town & Country US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Consult the Oracle
From high inside his new Athens lair, jeweler Nikos Koulis holds forth on mixed metals, good light, and the secrets of veal lemonato.
THE BITTEREST PILL
The notorious double homicide of a pharmaceutical billionaire and his wife remains unsolved. Now the inheritance battle over their fortune threatens to pry open a family's vault of secrets and add another chapter to the saga of a gruesome murder mystery.
The Game PLAN
Join the soccer team! Take up fencing! How about shot put? The advice tossed at athletically inclined kids hoping to get into good colleges starts early, as do solicitations from admission advisors who specialize in sports. If only it were that easy to cross the finish line.
Isn't That Rich?
From SNL to the silver screen to awards show stages, Maya Rudolph always brings the magic. Her latest trick? Turning an out-of-touch billionaire into TV's most endearing character.
MOB WIFE No More
There's nothing tacky about it. All hail the return of the oldest trick in the book.
That Was AWKWARD
Goodbye frizzy bangs, hello contoured cheekbones. Tweens are cooler, and hotter, than ever. What could go wrong?
Because You're Worth It
Think long-term improvements, not quick fixes. Here's how to build equity in your face.
Anatomy of a Classic
How do you capture the rhythms of dance in a bag? With reverence for the past-and really good leather.
The Me Aesthetic
In the peak era of social media fashion, how do you dress as if you have a mind of your own? We have found your way out of the maze.
The Year of the Swan
Simplicity telegraphs confidence, which is why no portrait of a lady today is complete without a demure classic like the button earring.
