A collector from Luxembourg requires $ 6.5 million for fake Russian paintings

The Manhattan painting gallery took $ 9.6 million from the buyer for overvalued and fake Russian paintings. The European has filed a lawsuit in federal court and now claims 6.5 million back.

Arthur Properties from Luxembourg claims that Anatoly Bekkerman and his ABA Gallery conducted a “comprehensive and multi-faceted, intensive fraudulent campaign” to fool him with 18 paintings representing Russian paintings from the nineteenth to twentieth centuries. Four paintings, according to the plaintiff, were fake, while others “have much less value than Beckerman imagined”.

“ABA is an art gallery that specializes in nineteenth-twentieth-century Russian art,” the plaintiff claims. - Here is the information from the site: “For more than thirty years, ABA Gallery has been dealing with the best examples of Russian painting and sculpture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. During this time, the gallery transferred important and rare works to large public and private collections in Europe and the United States. ”

Arthur Properties calls on Beckerman to conspire with the rest, including his own daughter, to mislead Arthur’s agent, Alexander Savchuk, about the “series of paintings that supposedly belonged to famous Russian artists.” Moreover, none of the alleged accomplices of Beckerman was called a defender, and Savchuk has no relation to the lawsuit.

Among the 18 works in question, there is a painting by Ivan Aivazovsky "Seascape with Peter the Great", for which Arthur, according to him, paid $ 4 million, an oil painting by Ivan Shishkin "In the Woods" ($ 1 million) and two paintings oil by Alexander Arkhipenko: “Portrait of a wife” (300 thousand dollars) and “Naked blonde” (350 thousand dollars).

Arthur claims that Aivazovsky’s value was “about 80 percent overstated,” Shishkin was fake, and Arkhipenko’s paintings were increased by 66%. The other three paintings, for which Arthur paid $ 1.4 million, were also fakes.

From the lawsuit: “Since the fall of 2006 and throughout the first half of 2007, the defendant Beckerman, with the help of third parties, organized a comprehensive and multilateral intensive work to deceive the plaintiff. The purpose of the scheme was to convince Savchuk, who lives in Ukraine, to acquire from Bekkerman what Bekkerman presented as valuable works of art exhibited in his gallery in New York - paintings, some of which were fakes, and others were of much less value than introduced Beckerman. ”

“As part of his scheme, Beckerman introduced people who consciously or unconsciously eased his fraud. Among these people were: Michael and Sorina Abramovich, wealthy former Russian citizens who now live in Paris, their daughter, Regina Abramovich, who lives in New York and now serves as a consultant in the Department of Russian Art at Sotheby’s in New York and Beckerman’s daughter "Sonia Beckerman, who lives in New York and holds the position of senior vice president of Russian painting at Sotheby’s in New York."

“Beckerman’s scheme consisted of many conversations, phone calls and visits to Europe; all efforts were made, first of all, to convince the plaintiff that Beckerman is an honest art dealer with a good reputation, and, secondly, to convince the plaintiff that he is offered authentic authentic paintings at a price that matches their present market value. ”

Arthur claims that he transferred the total amount of $ 9,580,000 by bank payment to Beckerman’s accounts for 18 paintings. Of this amount, 2.4 million were paid for 4 fakes, and another 4.1 million were seized under the pretext of overpriced.

“There was a malicious agreement between the defendants Beckerman, ABA and, possibly, someone else to commit fraud and force Russian paintings to be acquired through distortion of facts, omissions and concealment regarding the authorship, authenticity and market value of the paintings,” the lawsuit states.

“These offenses include the creation, harboring, misinformation, transmission and sale of non-genuine paintings, as well as complicity in these crimes.”

Arthur demands the cancellation of the transaction on the basis of fraud and $ 6.5 million in damage for concealment, violation of the terms of the contract, misrepresentation and unjust enrichment.

The plaintiff is represented by Fox Horan & Camerini LLP.

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