Another big one’s fall from grace. I feel bad for all the artists who will take a hit. According to Jori Finkel’s article in The New York Times: …on April 6, Mr. Chrismas lost the keys to his gallery, after failing to make a $17.5 million court-ordered payment to settle his debts in a long-running Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Sam Leslie, a bankruptcy trustee, took over as what he calls a “de facto C.E.O. of the reorganized business,” which includes a 30,000-square-foot mega-gallery in a historic Art Deco building in the mid-Wilshire district, and a space in Beverly Hills.
The gallery’s owner was an ealry champion of artists like Naumann, LeWitt, Warhol, Francis and Ruscha. However, according to Finkel: …complaints of late checks began early, too. In a 1979 entry from the book “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” Warhol said that Mr. Chrismas gave him the runaround: “He’s so awful … If he’d just say, ‘I can’t pay you,’ you’d know where you stood.” As Kristine McKenna reported in a 2003 article in L.A. Weekly, Mr. Chrismas had been sued more than 55 times under nine different business names — “by artists, dealers, collectors, private investors, service industries, landlords and former friends.” I guess there is a lot more to the story and we will keep you posted. For the rest of Jori’s article, click HERE.
Douglas Chrismas