Dreier Art Could Go on the Auction Block
The trustee liquidating the New York law firm owned by once high-flying lawyer Marc Dreier is seeking permission to auction 81 pieces of art formerly displayed there.
The pieces of art include three Matisse prints, five Warhol screen prints, a Jasper Johns screen print, and several pieces by minimalist painter Ellsworth Kelly, according to stories in the New York Law Journal and the Wall Street Journal blog Bankruptcy Beat.
Trustee Sheila Gowan told the New York Law Journal that a professional art adviser helped Dreier curate his collection. “These are major artists with international reputations,” she said.
So far, the Dreier estate has recovered $275,000 in an auction of furniture and office equipment, $3 million in cash, and $18.5 million from two investment funds that settled fraud-related claims, the NYLJ story says. Other suits are pending. Creditors have filed claims for about $570 million.
Dreier is serving a 20-year prison term for selling bogus promissory notes to sophisticated institutional investors.
