Lisa Schiff, once a fixture of the New York art scene and an adviser to Hollywood stars and wealthy collectors, will spend two-and-a-half years in prison for defrauding around millions from clients of her art advisory. She was also ordered to pay forfeiture of $6.4m and $9m in restitution to her victims. (The sale of more than 200 works from her art collection at Phillips was estimated to fetch about $2m.)
Behind the veneer of a successful and high-profile career as a top art adviser, Schiff defrauded an artist, an artist’s estate, a gallery and at least 12 clients out of around $6.5m between 2018 and 2023, according to the Justice Department. Schiff pleaded guilty last October to one count of wire fraud, which carried a maximum punishment of 20 years. Her guilty plea was in connection with transactions involving around 55 works of art.
In some cases, Schiff sold works belonging to clients but did not inform them of the sale and did not remit payments. On other occasions, she told clients she would purchase a work on their behalf, but would not go through with the transaction and pocket the funds, using them to pay her own business and personal expenses. To keep the grift going, she would pay one collector with another’s money, and assure longtime clients and friends their payments were incoming. It spiraled out of control in May 2023—just before Frieze New York and that spring's marquee auctions, one of the most important times of the year for the city’s art market— and Schiff confessed to several clients.
Schiff faced lawsuits from two former clients that year. Candace Carmel Barasch, a real estate heiress, and collector Richard Grossman accused Schiff of stiffing them out of $1.8m from the sale of an Adrian Ghenie painting, The Uncle 3 (2019), at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2022. Barasch filed another lawsuit with her husband Micheal, accusing Schiff of using $6.6m from the couple to fund her “lavish lifestyle” instead of making art purchases on their behalf.
“You become a lie,” Schiff told The New York Times in February, the first time she spoke publicly since legal troubles began. “It just got so big and I got so scared. I have a kid and I was just like, ‘I can’t be a criminal,’” she added. “I didn’t allow myself to even think that I was doing criminal behavior.”
Some of Schiff’s victims disagree with her assessment—Schiff considered accepting responsibility first in 2020 during a stay in rehab, but ultimately didn’t self-surrender to the authorities until May 2023. She has also not fully cooperated with some of her former client’s attempts to recoup their money, they allege. One former client said in a heavily-redacted victim impact statement—though details indicate it may have been written by Barasch—that Schiff has not followed through on promises to provide necessary information to help them secure their lost art and funds.
“Frankly, her continued non-cooperation indicates to us that she stole and misappropriated even more from us than we have been able to uncover so far, and is still trying to hide it,” the former client wrote.
Schiff must surrender for her 30-month sentence by 1 July.
"This has been a difficult, emotional, and really gut-wrenching time for everyone impacted by this case—both Lisa and the victims," Schiff's lawyer Randy Zelin said in a statement to The Art Newspaper. "The next steps are to put Lisa on a path to success." He added: "She gets to write the next chapter."
