Art Adviser Lisa Schiff Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Charge

Manhattan-based art adviser Lisa Schiff, who was known in New York art circles for her roster of blue-chip clients, on October 17 pleaded guilty in federal court to one felony count of wire fraud, for bilking collectors out of $6.5 million. The plea comes as part of a deal in which Schiff will additionally forfeit $6.4 million and face a January 2025 sentencing that could see her receive a prison term of up to twenty years.

Schiff was publicly accused of fraud in 2023 in two lawsuits, the first filed by real estate heiress and collector Candace Carmel Barasch and collector Richard Grossman, and the second by Barasch and her husband, Michael Barasch. The first suit alleged that Schiff had failed to pay the complainants $1.8 million she owed them for the sale of a painting, while the second accused her of absconding with $6.6 million she had been given to buy art. Prosecutors determined that Schiff had begun stealing from her clients, who numbered roughly a dozen, in 2018, typically withholding funds generated by a sale without telling her clients a work had sold, or using for her own gain money she’d been given to buy works for her clients.

“For years, Lisa Schiff breached the trust of her art advisory clients by lying to them and diverting millions of dollars her clients had entrusted to her,” Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “Instead of using client funds as promised, Schiff used the stolen money to fund a lavish lifestyle.”

Schiff closed her art advisory firm, Schiff Fine Art, in May 2023 and filed for bankruptcy this past January. She is auctioning off her own collection as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Phillips New York is handling the sale, which is reported to include works by Judy Chicago, Nan Goldin, Damien Hirst, and Anicka Yi.

“Lisa has been anxious to have the opportunity to accept responsibility, she has been anxious to set out on a path of righting the wrongs and making amends,” Schiff’s lawyer, Randy Zelin, told the New York Times, noting that his client hoped to return to the New York art scene in the future.