Lisa Schiff, an art adviser who has been accused of defrauding collectors in two pending lawsuits from last year, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday.
In documents processed by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, she filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would allow her to potentially eliminate some debts that she still owes. Those documents claim that she owes nearly $7 million to a spread of entities, including storage facilities, blue-chip galleries, and collectors.
Some of those debts had already been made public in prior filings. Among those listed in the filing are the collector Candace Carmel Barasch, a plaintiff in both lawsuits pending against Schiff, as well as galleries such as 47 Canal, Bortolami, Canada, Nina Johnson, and Various Small Fires.
Of the debts listed, some of the greatest ones are to Adam Sheffer and Richard Grossman, and to Brian and Karen Conway. The filing says that Sheffer and Grossman have a claim of $900,000, while the Conways have a claim of $886,501.25, according to the filing. Sheffer is a dealer who was worked for galleries such as Pace, Cheim & Read, and Lisson; Grossman filed one of the lawsuits against Schiff alongside Barasch. The Conways are philanthropists who have a gallery named after them at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, where Karen is a trustee.
According to the bankruptcy filing, Schiff also owes more than $1 million to the Internal Revenue Service, plus an additional $408,939.14 to the New York State tax department, as well as $162,191.17 to the New York City Department of Finance.
Copyright
© Art News