Federal Authorities Are Investigating Disgraced Dealer Inigo Philbrick, Who Allegedly Fleeced Clients Out of Millions

Months after the wunderkind art dealer Inigo Philbrick
vanished—leaving in his wake a trail of lawsuits, international
asset seizures, and tens of millions of dollars and artworks
missing—his disgruntled clients aren’t the only ones looking for
him. The Department of Justice is also investigating the dealer,
according to four sources who did business with Philbrick or are
involved in legal proceedings against him.

A company that provided art support services for Philbrick over
the past several years confirmed to Artnet News that it received a
subpoena from the Department of Justice this past December, asking
the company to supply all of its records related to business
transactions with him.

Asked whether an investigation is active, a spokesman for the
Department of Justice told Artnet News: “We’re not able to comment
on your inquiry.”

Trouble with the feds will add to an already hefty
cluster of
lawsuits against the dealer, who was once a protégé of
White Cube founder Jay Jopling. Those who confirmed the DOJ
investigation to Artnet News added that more civil lawsuits against
Philbrick are in the pipeline as well.

Since last fall, the young dealer has been targeted by former
clients who claim he sold the
same works to multiple people and defaulted on loans he
secured using art he didn’t own as collateral. Now, disgruntled
former business associates are trying to
seize his personal assets,
which filings suggest could amount to as much as $70 million, as
well as $150 million from his business.

Philbrick’s dealings have offered insight into the shadowy world
of art-flipping and profiteering, where clients will buy portions
of an artwork to hold and sell at auction for a profit. But a
criminal investigation would likely expose even more of the inner
workings of this corner of the art world.

Currently, a number of artworks at the center of his
international tug of war are frozen in place. A multimillion-dollar
Rudolf Stingel painting that Philbrick sold to more than one buyer
and also borrowed heavily against for cash hit the auction block at
Christie’s in May 2019, shortly before the scandal broke. It is
currently being held by the auction house at the instruction of a
judge. Although Christie’s is not party to any of the litigation
and did not respond to a request for comment about whether it had
been subpoenaed, it does hold valuable evidence—in addition to the
painting itself, it has a copy of a fake eight-page seller’s
agreement that bears Christie’s Rockefeller Center address at the
top, which Philbrick allegedly supplied to a client as evidence
that he had secured a guarantee for the work and had the right to
sell it.

Philbrick’s whereabouts remain unknown. He has been placed at
such exotic and far-flung locations as the Bahamas, Tokyo,
Australia, and various islands in the South Pacific.
His girlfriend at the
time of his disappearance, Victoria Baker Harber, is an
English socialite best known for her role on the popular British
reality show “Made in Chelsea.” She moved to Miami when Philbrick
opened his gallery and launched her own boutique, called the
Space.

In an Instagram message, Baker Harber told us in February that
she “was running the store separate from” Philbrick and declined to
comment on his legal troubles. “Wish I could be of more help,” she
wrote, “but am in the dark!” One source who did not want to be
identified told Artnet News that the two are still in contact,
however, sometimes speaking to one another on “burner” phones.

The post Federal Authorities Are Investigating Disgraced
Dealer Inigo Philbrick, Who Allegedly Fleeced Clients Out of
Millions appeared first on artnet News.