Bankrupt Manhattan Art Gallery Accused of Defrauding Clients
- Clients allege Chowaiki won’t return cash or paintings
- The gallery’s bankruptcy filing lists debts five times assets
A woman looks at a painting by Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky.
Photographer: Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty Images
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Paintings by Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky and the Italian surrealist Giorgio de Chirico were allegedly used by a New York art dealer to lure investors and collectors into paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for works he never owned or didn’t have a right to sell.
At least three lawsuits filed this week against the dealer, Ezra Chowaiki, accuse him and the Park Avenue gallery in which he’s the president and a minority shareholder, of carrying out a variety of frauds. The gallery, Chowaiki & Co. Fine Art Ltd., filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 13.