In the likely financial conclusion of a years-long bankruptcy case, the former art dealer Douglas Chrismas has been ordered by a California court to hand over more than $14 million to an unnamed group of creditors.
In 2013, Ace Gallery, which Chrismas founded in Los Angeles in the 1960s, filed for bankruptcy. The dealer continued to run the business until 2016, when a court-appointed trustee and forensic accountant, Sam Leslie, was placed in charge. By then, the gallery’s creditors had leveled numerous charges against Chrismas, including “avoidance, recovery, and preservation of fraudulent transfers,” Leslie later alleged.that Chrismas had re-directed $16.9 million in profits from art sales to shell accounts labeled “Ace New York” and “Ace Museum,” and had stashed 60 unaccounted-for works of art in a private storage facility.
Due to overwhelming evidence against the former dealer, a summary judgment was submitted by a California District Court judge in lieu of a trial by jury on May 3. Chrismas was ordered to pay $14,243,884 to Leslie, who is now in charge of returning the money to Chrismas’s creditors. In an email to Artnet News, Leslie’s attorney, Victor Sahn, said the “judgment is representative of the value of art” that Chrismas used in his diversion scheme. Any funds recovered from the dealer will go to the plaintiffs in the summary judgment.The gallerist’s legal troubles are far from over, though. In March 2021,
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