New York Art Dealer Duped Clients Out of Millions, U.S. Says
- U.S. alleges gallery was center of multi-million dollar fraud
- Chowaiki was sued by clients and Sotheby’s last month
A work by Wassily Kandinsky on display in London in 2012.
Photographer: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
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A Manhattan art dealer faces federal charges that he used paintings by Wassily Kandinsky and other renowned artists as bait to defraud collectors and investors out of millions of dollars.
Ezra Chowaiki, of the recently bankrupt Chowaiki & Co. Fine Art Ltd. on Park Avenue in New York, is accused of ripping off at least a half dozen art dealers with sham transactions in which some victims were led to believe they were buying stakes in fine art earmarked for a quick resale and hefty profit. Other victims left artwork at the gallery on consignment and never got it back, including one collector who lost a $1.2 million painting, the U.S. said.