New York’s Tracey Amon filed a request on July 25 within the US District Courtroom for the District of Southern New York to subpoena artwork advisor Sanford “Sandy” Heller. She desires him to show over paperwork to be used in her lawsuits in Switzerland over the disposition of the property of her late husband, Maurice Alain Amon, who retained Heller as an advisor beginning in 2013. Heller has been described as “presumably the largest artwork advisor on this planet,” and seemingly works with Roman Abramovich and Steve Cohen.
The inheritor to the corporate SIPCA, which makes inks utilized in printing foreign money, Maurice died at 68 in 2019 whereas on vacation in Saint Tropez. The submitting places his worth at some $600 million in property and enterprise pursuits on the time of his loss of life, and asserts that Tracey is on the lookout for her rightful share. The request revolves round Heller’s valuation of the gathering.
The 2 married in Hong Kong in 2008 “with out signing a wedding contract on that event or later,” in response to an exhibit. He filed overseas for divorce in 2015 with out telling her, says the submitting, which claims he secretly eliminated some 20 artworks, collectively valued at $25 million, from their New York house. He allegedly additionally spirited away artworks from different residences. He claimed in court docket filings in 2017 that after shedding her key, she took a blowtorch to a lockbox of their Paris house, allegedly leaving a poisonous mud over artworks by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol.
Whereas the divorce was in course of, he allegedly executed a will naming Albert Amon, his son from a earlier marriage, as his solely inheritor, and his assistant, Silvio Venturi, as executor. The New York Publish reported that in 2018, she had received about $123,000 a month in spousal assist and a lump sum of about $1.3 million in a Monaco court docket. He allegedly added different legatees and beneficiaries in a codicil executed in Singapore in 2019. She sued Albert and Venturi in Switzerland in 2020; in addition they introduced an motion in opposition to her.
The magistrate in Lausanne ordered the administration of the property in December 2024. Administrator Olivier Weniger issued a list in December 2025, together with a report from accounting agency KPMG with an analysis of the artwork holdings as of 2019 of Artmon, the holding firm by way of which Amon held his artworks, which was registered within the British Virgin Islands.
“It seems that the worth of Artmon’s artworks diminished dramatically throughout 2019,” says the submitting, including, “This diminution seems to be based mostly a minimum of partially on Heller’s valuation.” Heller reported capital losses of €33.4 million and latent capital beneficial properties of €7.5 million, for a lack of about €26 million, or $29.6 million. “However,” says the submitting (in daring kind and italics), “there isn’t a checklist of the works Heller truly examined, no methodology supplied, and no data as to when Heller did its analysis.”
Heller didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
Tracey Amon is searching for the entire valuation report and all related work product, together with the checklist of artworks examined, comparables thought-about, the valuation methodology, and all related correspondence. She additionally seeks documentation of all of Heller’s dealings with Artmon and the Maurice Amon property, together with any artwork gross sales, artwork purchases, consignments, inventories, invoices, and the like.
The court docket has but to answer Amon’s request.
