Whereas a lot of the artwork world is off on summer season holidays, information broke earlier this week of a bitter authorized battle between high artwork advisor Barbara Guggenheim and her former associate Abigail Asher.
The implosion of the advisors’ high-profile partnership, Guggenheim Asher Associates (GAA), has despatched waves by means of an trade already reeling from vendor Tim Blum’s announcement earlier this month that he was shuttering his eponymous gallery.
In a extensively shared put up on LinkedIn, collector Sylvain Levy put the information in stark phrases.
“The collapse of Guggenheim Asher Associates, as soon as a pillar of the worldwide artwork advisory panorama, is greater than a personal dispute between two distinguished figures,” Levy wrote. “It’s a public second of reckoning for an trade that has lengthy operated on belief, discretion, and informality on the highest ranges.”
The dispute, Levy continued, reveals a “systemic failure in governance” within the artwork world, and particularly within the advisory career, which “stays one of many least regulated throughout the world cultural economic system … ruled much less by codified requirements than by networks of fame.”
The authorized battle started final August, when Guggenheim accused Asher of misusing agency funds and staking a declare to as much as $20.5 million in future commissions from shoppers who observe her after the the 2 parted methods, regardless of no non-compete clause and a enterprise that had already dissolved. In accordance with courtroom filings, Asher is accused of utilizing the cash for all the things from dwelling enhancements to meals and European well being membership retreats.
Whereas Asher initially sought to have the go well with dismissed, earlier this week she countersued, alleging that her former associate “stole cash from the agency to pay private bills, together with her husband’s funeral prices, luxurious autos, and household holidays.” Asher additionally claims that Guggenheim chronically bullied her, threatened her, and instructed her to “put on leather-based and be provocative”—and even to sleep with shoppers to drum up enterprise.
Significantly disturbing is the allegation that Guggenheim inspired Asher to construct a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a pal of Guggenheim’s who—years after the occasions outlined in Asher’s go well with—was convicted of sexual offenses towards minors, as a way to construct a portfolio of well-heeled shoppers.
Guggenheim has confronted related allegations prior to now. In 1989, actor Sylvester Stallone filed a $5 million civil fraud go well with alleging that the advisor pressured him into shopping for broken works and in the end overcharged him. That case was settled out of courtroom.
A part of GAA’s pristine fame stemmed from the truth that each ladies have been govt members of the Affiliation of Skilled Artwork Advisors (APAA), an invitation-only membership group that promotes “requirements of connoisseurship, scholarship, and moral apply within the career,” and whose members “are distinguished by adherence to a core set of moral rules.”
However artwork advisor Maria Brito, who just isn’t affiliated with the APAA, stated there’s solely a lot such a company can do.
“Not even a regulatory physique can stop advisors from committing fraud, from breaking moral guidelines, or committing tax fraud,” Brito instructed ARTnews. “The largest downside isn’t their reputations; it’s the chance that one or each broke state or federal legal guidelines or defrauded the IRS.”
Earlier this yr, once-prominent artwork advisor Lisa Schiff was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail after pleading responsible to orchestrating a Ponzi-esque scheme that drained greater than $6.4 million from pals and shoppers. Whereas Schiff was not a member of the APAA, she constructed her profession in the course of the artwork market’s rise within the early aughts. In 2000, when she opened her advisory, the APAA had solely 60 members. At this time, that quantity has grown to 185—whereas numerous different advisors stay exterior the group.
In 2023, when information of Schiff’s misconduct turned public, APAA president Alex Glauber instructed City & Nation that the group’s membership requirements are “designed to counter the realities of a area with no boundaries to entry. Collectively, these requirements intention to outline advisory finest practices inside an amorphous area typically impugned by these unqualified at finest and deceitful at worst.”
When approached for remark concerning the Guggenheim–Asher lawsuits, a spokesperson for the APAA instructed ARTnews: “Like everybody, we nonetheless have extra to study and will not be ready to evaluate the allegations. We received’t have the ability to present a remark right now.”
It’s no shock that, following such a high-profile authorized dispute, the trade in query is dealing with extra scrutiny, in response to Megan Fox Kelly, an APAA member and former president.
“Any time a partnership like this, after a long time of prominence, dissolves by means of litigation, it attracts consideration and raises questions concerning the construction of the enterprise and its governance,” Fox Kelly instructed ARTnews. “Each advisors have robust reputations and lengthy observe data. And I’d hope there’s nonetheless a path ahead for them, whether or not collectively or independently.”
In 2024, simply two months earlier than Guggenheim filed her go well with, Cultured reported that Asher had parted methods with GAA, the place she suggested main company shoppers like Sony and A-listers together with Tom Cruise. With litigation ongoing, it stays unclear what impact—if any—the general public and messy dissolution of such a distinguished partnership can have on the advisory enterprise as an entire.
“At any time when we see such a fraud I believe it ought to give folks pause,” advisor Ralph DeLuca instructed ARTnews. “My recommendation, if you wish to work with an advisor, do your homework. Ask artwork sellers and public sale homes. Observe how they stay. In the event that they aren’t accountable with their cash, what do you assume they’ll do with yours?”
