Whereas a lot of the artwork world is off on summer season holidays, information broke earlier this week of a bitter legal battle between high artwork advisor Barbara Guggenheim and her former companion Abigail Asher.
The implosion of the advisors’ high-profile partnership, Guggenheim Asher Associates (GAA), has despatched waves by way of an trade already reeling from supplier Tim Blum’s announcement earlier this month that he was shuttering his eponymous gallery.
In a widely shared post on LinkedIn, collector Sylvain Levy put the information in stark phrases.
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“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 outstanding 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 specifically within the advisory occupation, which “stays one of many least regulated throughout the international cultural financial 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 keeping with courtroom filings, Asher is accused of utilizing the cash for every thing from dwelling enhancements to meals and European well being membership retreats.
Whereas Asher initially sought to have the swimsuit dismissed, earlier this week she countersued, alleging that her former companion “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.
Notably disturbing is the allegation that Guggenheim inspired Asher to construct a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a buddy of Guggenheim’s who—years after the occasions outlined in Asher’s swimsuit—was convicted of sexual offenses in opposition to minors, in an effort to construct a portfolio of well-heeled shoppers.
Guggenheim has confronted comparable allegations prior to now. In 1989, actor Sylvester Stallone filed a $5 million civil fraud suit alleging that the advisor pressured him into shopping for broken works and finally overcharged him. That case was settled out of courtroom.
A part of GAA’s pristine fame stemmed from the truth that each girls have been government members of the Affiliation of Skilled Artwork Advisors (APAA), an invitation-only membership organization that promotes “requirements of connoisseurship, scholarship, and moral apply within the occupation,” and whose members “are distinguished by adherence to a core set of moral rules.”
However artwork advisor Maria Brito, who will not be affiliated with the APAA, stated there’s solely a lot such a corporation can do.
“Not even a regulatory physique can stop advisors from committing fraud, from breaking moral guidelines, or committing tax fraud,” Brito informed 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 12 months, 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 present, 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 informed Town & Country that the group’s membership requirements are “designed to counter the realities of a discipline with no limitations to entry. Collectively, these requirements goal to outline advisory greatest practices inside an amorphous discipline typically impugned by these unqualified at greatest and deceitful at worst.”
When approached for remark in regards to the Guggenheim–Asher lawsuits, a spokesperson for the APAA informed ARTnews: “Like everybody, we nonetheless have extra to study and usually are not able 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 accordance with Megan Fox Kelly, an APAA member and former president.
“Any time a partnership like this, after many years of prominence, dissolves by way of litigation, it attracts consideration and raises questions in regards to the construction of the enterprise and its governance,” Fox Kelly informed ARTnews. “Each advisors have sturdy reputations and lengthy observe information. And I might 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 swimsuit, 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 outstanding partnership could have on the advisory enterprise as a complete.
“Every time we see one of these fraud I feel it ought to give individuals pause,” advisor Ralph DeLuca informed 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 suppose they’ll do with yours?”
