Art scam or mail fraud?

Reports this week from San Francisco that a local man has been charged with federal mail fraud in the US District Court, and is being held in prison without bail, in relation to a deal to purchase millions of dollars worth of art. 

It is claimed that Luke Brugnara, who has already spent time in prison for tax evasion and illegal trout poaching, falsely represented that he was able to purchase $11 million worth of artwork from a New York dealer. The works were then delivered to him without him having to pay a cent - apparently on the basis that he would pay for or return them within five days of receipt.

The San Francisco Chronicle details:

Brugnara made a deal in April to pay $7.3 million to an art dealer from New York for 16 paintings by Willem de Kooning, the Dutch American Abstract Expressionist artist... 

Brugnara also agreed to pay $3 million for an Edgar Degas sculpture, $450,000 for a painting by American realist artist George Luks, $160,000 for a drawing by Joan Miró and $145,000 for etchings by Pablo Picasso...  

The art dealer, who was not named in the affidavit, asked Brugnara to pay some of the money up front. Brugnara, however, said he shouldn't have to because he had previously bought a Renoir painting for $500,000 and a Picasso drawing from her without any problems...  

Brugnara told the dealer that he was opening a museum in San Francisco... When the dealer said she wasn't aware of any new museums opening in San Francisco, Brugnara told her it would actually be in Las Vegas...  

The art was shipped in crates from New York to Brugnara's home on Sea Cliff Avenue in San Francisco...  

The dealer's subsequent efforts to collect for the artwork were unsuccessful. Brugnara told his lawyer that the art was given to him as a gift and that the works were "unauthenticated and not worth much," according to an attorney representing the dealer.  

The dealer went to authorities earlier this month. 

As a non-American lawyer, it is not clear why the art dealer did not or was not required to bring a cause of action herself. Surely there was some sort of contract of sale that was breached? If only we could all have the FBI bring cases on our behalf. [But seriously, if anyone wants to enlighten us all, please do.]


Source: The San Francisco Chronicle, 30 May 2014

Public Art Funded by Law

Having just returned from a break to the US, which included some time in San Francisco, I was interested to learn how a number of the city's public artworks are funded. It seems that there is a great piece of legislation that requires all developers of projects over 25,000 square feet in downtown San Francisco spend at least 1% of the construction costs on onsite art that can be viewed by the public for free. Further, a new bill has now been introduced that would require developers of all large developments citywide to pay the 1% "art fee" and also create a public art fund overseen by the San Francisco Arts Commission to which developers could donate instead of having to commission the art themselves.

Now if we can just get Boris to propose similar legislation for London….

Some public art in San Francisco:

In London:

Source: The Huffington Post, 27 February 2012, San Francisco image: Flickr, Lorianne DiSabato, London image: Flickr, Jeff Van Campen