Art Investors Go to War Over Disgraced Dealer Inigo Philbrick’s Scheme to Sell Stakes in a $1 Million Wade Guyton Painting

“Glad to be partners… Speak soon,
I.”

That’s how now disgraced art dealer Inigo Philbrick signed off a
June 2013 email to his former friend and investor Andre Sakhai when
he sold him a 50 percent share of a Wade Guyton painting, for
$350,000.

Sakhai, through his shell company V&A Collections, is now
pursuing legal intervention in New York State Supreme Court to
protect his interest in the painting, supposedly worth upwards
of $1 million.

The problem? The Guyton is yet another artwork caught up in the
legal mess Philbrick created by overselling multiple shares of
works he did not own, as well as pledging those same works as
collateral for multimillion-dollar loans.

The Guyton painting, showing the artist’s signature “U” shape
hovering above flames, is also one of the works being claimed by
Guzzini Properties, another shell company run by billionaire
UK-based brothers Simon and David Reuben. The Reubens loaned
Philbrick $6 million with several works pledged as collateral that
are now disputed.

The Reubens initially tried to recoup money they had wrapped up
in Philbrick’s deals anonymously but Bloomberg News
identified them in a story this past December. The Reubens’s
attorney declined to comment.

Adding another layer of complication to the case is the fact
that at the time Philbrick sold the Guyton share to Sakhai, he was
still running Modern Collections, the secondary-market art
dealership co-owned by Jay Jopling, founder and owner of
London-based White Cube gallery.

Philbrick got his start in the art world as an intern at White
Cube in 2010 before rising through the ranks to co-run Modern
Collections and later striking out on his own.

“Modern Collections is part of Jay Jopling’s secondary market
business, and he is and always has been the only owner,” a
representative said in a statement. “Mr. Philbrick worked for the
company and has never had any ownership interest.”

Jopling is one of four entities who have successfully obtained
an injunction from a UK High Court that froze Philbrick’s assets
until various claims are sorted out.

According to Sakhai’s claim, under the sale with Modern
Collections, he agreed to acquire the half interest in the Guyton
and receive an additional $350,000 in cash in exchange for a
different Guyton work, titled X or the Guyton
X in the filing.

Sakhai previously bought Guyton X from Modern
Collections in July 2012 for $585,000, according to an invoice.
Sakhai and Philbrick agreed that when the “U” painting eventually
sold, Sakhai would receive $850,000, Modern Collections would
receive $700,000, and they would then evenly split any profit above
those amounts.

Then, in 2017, without Sakhai’s “knowledge or consent, and
without any compensation,” Philbrick, on behalf of Inigo Philbrick
Limited, purported to transfer an interest in the Guyton “U” to
Guzzini (aka the Reubens). Sakhai has demanded that Guzzini return
the Guyton but says “Guzzini has refused to do so and has declined
to recognize the Collection’s ownership interest,” according to the
filing.

Along with the Guyton, the Reubens are also claiming title to a
Rudolf Stingel painting, Untitled (2012), a photorealist
style portrait of Pablo Picasso, which is being chased by at least
two other investors who paid Philbrick for shares in it.
Christie’s, which is not party to any of the litigation, is holding
the work until courts sort out the ownership issue.

The post Art Investors Go to War Over Disgraced Dealer Inigo
Philbrick’s Scheme to Sell Stakes in a $1 Million Wade Guyton
Painting appeared first on artnet News.