The British auction house Phillips is in the final stages of an agreement to sell around 231 artworks in the possession of Lisa Schiff, following two lawsuits filed against her last May. If approved by the court, the works would be sold across multiple auctions planned for next year, 2024.
Initially reported by The Observer, the recently revealed agreement would see works by renowned artists behind an auction podium, artists like Katherine Bradford, Katie Stout, Ben Quilty, Ivy Haldeman, and Anicka Yi. Works of the former two are planned to be included in Phillips' "New Now" auction, which will reportedly act as a proving ground for freshly established artists and their marketability.
This art cache owned by Schiff is projected to collectively generate up to $1.5 million according to the agreement documents. Other works in Schiff's trove like those made by Ann Craven and Max Jansen, in addition to her book collection, were already sold through court-ordered auctions outside the jurisdiction of major auction houses.
What are the Two Lawsuits Lisa Schiff is Facing About?
Two of Schiff's then-clients and art collectors Candace Barasch and Richard Grossman filed legal complaints against the defendant for allegedly defrauding them amounting to a huge combined sum of over $8.4 million.
In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiffs argued that Schiff owed each of them $900,000, or a collective $1.8 million, relating to a sale of acclaimed Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie's painting "Uncle 3."
The legal complaint was filed to the New York State Supreme Court on May 11 earlier this year. In addition to fraud, the complainants also claimed that Schiff committed a breach of contract, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, and conspiracy.
The other lawsuit accused Schiff of refusing to honor the deal between herself, her firm "Schiff Fine Art," and Barasch regarding the purchases of artworks with a combined value of $6.6 million, which the art collector had wired to her before receiving the pieces. Barasch also allegedly never got the pieces at all.
Both lawsuits addressed to Schiff and her firm are still currently pending.
