On Wednesday, the FBI executed a search at Dane Positive Artwork, a gallery primarily based in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Whereas the FBI didn’t say what the search was for, a spokesperson informed CBS Philadelphia that it was conducting a “court-authorized regulation enforcement exercise.”
Victor Fiorillo, a senior reporter at Philadelphia journal, was on the scene of the search Wednesday, reporting that he “witnessed a number of FBI brokers going out and in of the two-story constructing.” When Fiorillo approached, an agent informed him that they have been executing a search warrant.
After the search was over, a handwritten word on the door listed a telephone quantity; when Fiorillo known as it, a gallery worker informed him the gallery was “closed” for the day however didn’t know why.
Whereas Dane Positive Artwork has been round for a few years, it’s not clear who the homeowners are. Fiorillo did some sleuthing in property information and located that the gallery’s incorporation paperwork embody a mailing deal with for a property as soon as owned by Leslie Isen, the spouse of artwork collector Nathan “Nicky” Isen, who beforehand ran the now-defunct gallery I. Brewster & Firm.
Isen additionally pleaded responsible in 2015 to cash laundering in a scheme the place he used artwork to allegedly launder drug cash. That very same yr, Philadelphia journal revealed a deep dive into Isen. That piece detailed allegations that Isen offered pretend artworks, although none of it has been confirmed.
Dane Positive Artwork advertises on its web site that it sells work by quite a few blue-chip artists, together with Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Keith Haring, Henri Matisse, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to title just some of these listed on its artist web page.
On Thursday, the gallery held a web based public sale titled “Canine Days of Summer season Fashionable & Up to date Sale,” providing what it stated have been unique prints by Warhol, Haring, Renoir, and others.
When contacted by ARTnews on Thursday, a gallery worker responded, “No remark,” to questions concerning the FBI search. When requested to verify whether or not Isen is the proprietor of Dane Positive Artwork, the worker hung up.
