Prominent Collector and Dealer Adam Lindemann Arrested New York Art World

Dear ART+CULTURE readers noticed that New York’s art dealer and collector Adam Lindemann had been mentioned several times on this site. He has his own name tag in the “people section” of ART+CULTURE.

The spotlight has to be understood in the Japanese art world context regarding collector 前澤友作 MAEZAWA Yusaku’s acquisition of a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting (see below A+C link), which belonged to the couple Lindemann and Amalia Dayan, a well-connected Israeli art dealer (now LGDR, a art dealer’s group, founded by Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy, Amalia Dayan, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn).
Further on, he switched his interest towards the NFT genre, publicly endorsing digital BS artist Beeple, ergo, every art made via NFT.

Today the international art world got its next gossip thing via Artnet News.

Prominent Collector and Dealer Adam Lindemann Arrested After Alleged Altercation at Competing Montauk Art Gallery
The dealer allegedly trespassed onto Max Levai’s art gallery in Montauk, The Ranch.
Annie Armstrong, July 19, 2023

quote:

Art collector and proprietor of New York’s Venus Over Manhattan gallery Adam Lindemann was arrested in Montauk on July 5 for criminal trespass in the third degree, a misdemeanor, and harassment in the second degree, according to police records published by the East Hampton Press. 

quote:

Lindemann, who is 61, has owned the 5.7 acre estate out East since 2015, when he bought it from former J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler for $48.7 million. He attempted to sell the house in the summer of 2020 for $65 million, without success, and maintains several other properties in the area.

Earlier this summer, Artnet News reported that the South Etna Montauk Foundation, an exhibition space co-run by Lindemann and his wife, fellow dealer Amalia Dayan, had closed, and that Eothen was listed for short-term rental.

full text @
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/adam-lindemann-charged-montauk-2339029

ARTnews
Dealer Adam Lindemann Arrested on Long Island on Charges of Trespassing, Harassment
BY ALEX GREENBERGER, July 19, 2023
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/adam-lindemann-arrested-montauk-1234674833

Art Crime
Collector Adam Lindemann arrested after shoving rival dealer Max Levai
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/07/20/collector-adam-lindemann-arrested-after-shoving-dealer-max-levai

Artforum International July 19, 2023 at 4:31pm
ADAM LINDEMANN ARRESTED IN MONTAUK AFTER KERFUFFLE WITH RIVAL DEALER

Adam Lindemann, the founder of New York gallery Venus Over Manhattan, was apprehended by East Hampton police in Montauk on July 5 after allegedly entering The Ranch, the horse farm–cum–art gallery owned by the former Marlborough Gallery president Max Levai, and shoving the dealer. According to the police blotter in the July 13 edition of the East Hampton Press, Lindemann “entered a private property — through an open driveway gate with a ‘No Trespassing’ sign on it — and went into a building used as an art gallery without permission,” where he “pushed another man in the chest with both hands.” Charged with third-degree criminal trespass and second-degree harassment, Lindemann was issued a desk appearance ticket.
Lindemann’s lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., appeared in court today in his client’s place, Artnet News reports. Burke requested the trial be moved and affirmed that Lindemann planned to plead innocent. “These charges are absurd,” Burke said. “My client has been to The Ranch many times since the opening three years ago.”

Levai, the son of former Marlborough Gallery director Pierre Levai, opened The Ranch in 2021, after he and his father were accused of mismanaging Marlborough and subsequently forced out of the family business. Lindemann, the scion of the late billionaire financier and collector George Lindemann, has since 2015 owned Eothen, Andy Warhol’s former oceanfront summer home, which abuts the horse farm. (Interestingly, ahead of The Ranch’s launch, Lindemann disavowed the notion that he was a neighbor of Levai’s.)

According to Burke, who identified Levai as the victim of the shove, the dispute between the two men stems from “several issues [Levai has] with the town of East Hampton related to violations of the zoning code. [Levai’s] frustrations should be addressed to the town, and not my client,” said Burke. “I’m very confident that these charges will be dropped.”
https://www.artforum.com/news/adam-lindemann-arrested-in-montauk-after-kerfuffle-with-rival-dealer-90826

MONTAUK— Adam M. Lindemann, 61, of Manhattan was charged with criminal trespass in the third degree, a misdemeanor, and harassment in the second degree, a violation, on July 5 at 6:23 p.m. According to East Hampton Town Police, at 3:30 p.m. he entered a private property — through an open driveway gate with a “No Trespassing” sign on it — and went into a building used as an art gallery without permission. Police said he also pushed another man in the chest with both hands. He was issued an appearance ticket for a later court date.
https://www.27east.com/east-hampton-press/police/east-hampton-police-reports/

2.June 2020
A look inside Andy Warhol’s former home as billionaire art collector Adam Lindemann puts oceanfront Montauk estate on the market for US$85 million
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3087007/look-inside-andy-warhols-former-home-billionaire-art

Let’s follow this fatalistic manoeuvre and recapitulate about Lindemann’s art dealer practice, plus MAEZAWA Yusaku’s Basquiat’s painting-flip-history, plus MAEZAWA Yusaku’s art collection 前澤友作コレクション in BRUTUS Magazine 平成28年11月1日. Check the following link:

#USABS U.S. ARTY BULL SHIT. NFTデジタル・アーティスト ビープル：「美術史の流れを変えたい」や「悪役である」というメリット
#USABS。NFT Digital Artist Beeple: “I want to change the course of art history” and the merit of “being the bad guy”
https://art-culture.world/articles/nft-beeple-digital-artist-ビープル/

See also:

21 May 2020
New York dealer Adam Lindemann sues real estate titan Aby Rosen to get out of his lease
The owner of Venus Over Manhattan gallery is withholding rent and demanding his $365,000 security deposit back due to coronavirus lockdowns that have shuttered the space

Adam Lindemann, the investor and owner of the Upper East Side art gallery Venus Over Manhattan, is suing real estate mogul Aby Rosen to break his lease on the gallery’s 980 Madison Avenue location in New York, claiming he can no longer do business there due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown in the city.
According to documents filed in a Manhattan federal court on 18 May, the art dealer says that because of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s order temporarily shuttering nonessential businesses, he is no longer obligated to fulfil his lease, which terminates in 2022. The lawsuit cites “frustration of purpose”, a policy that allows tenants to terminate a lease if the purpose of the lease has been undermined because of an unforeseen circumstance.
“Is it only the tenant’s responsibility when the tenant can’t use the space as intended or may never be able to?” Errol Margolin, the gallery’s lawyer, told Crain’s New York, which first reported the suit. “When you have a gallery opening, you have 500 people. If you have social distancing, how can you have 500 people in the future?”
In what could be seen as part of a growing rent strike movement in the city, Lindemann withheld his rent payment from April onwards and is seeking the return of his security deposit, which totals $365,000, along with legal fees. The terms of Venus’s lease required monthly rent payments of $73,814 in its final year, up from the $54,233 it paid when it first moved into the space in 2012.
Venus was one of the first galleries to close its space in March when the Covid-19 outbreak started to take hold of New York. Previously deemed the “Grand Central Terminal of the art world” by the New York Times, the 100,000 sq. ft landmarked building in which the gallery resides also houses a Gagosian outpost and galleries like Higher Pictures and the Danziger Gallery.
Both Rosen and Lindemann are known for their high-profile deals, in real estate and in art. Lindemann broke auction records when he flipped a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting that he bought for $4.5m for $57m at Christie’s 2016. Rosen is a noted collector of Modern and contemporary art, owning more than 800 post-war pieces, including works by Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince and Jeff Koons.
As of this week, Lindemann is also trying to sell his Montauk mansion on Long Island for around $65m. The oceanfront estate, known as Eothen, famously belonged to Warhol previously. Lindemann and his wife, Amalia Dayan—also an art dealer and the co-founder of the gallery Luxembourg & Dayan—bought the compound in 2015 for $50m.

Up-date 2023/8/12

Art World

‘What Are You Going to Do About It, Fat Boy?’: How a Hamptons Feud Between Two Uber-Privileged Art Dealers Exploded Into an All-Out Turf War

quote:

Lindemann’s background is both similar and very different. His reputation in the art world rests on not only the art-dealing business handed to him by his father, the billionaire financier and collector George Lyle Lindemann,

but his fastidious work ethic (and probably more acutely, his ability to manipulate the art market in his favor). By working closely with auction houses—the commercial force widely understood to stand in opposition to the loftier intentions of the gallery circuit—Lindemann has made splashy resales from his own collection that grabbed auction records for works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jeff Koons, among others.

This past March, Lindemann sold $31.5 million worth of art from his personal collection (many of which were made by living artists, which can jeopardize an artist’s market) in a sale at Christie’s titled “ADAM.” The sale came just a few months after it was announced he was attempting to sell Eothen with a $65 million asking price. The eight-figure sales and offerings of trophy-like assets spurred speculation that Lindemann had hit hard times financially.

quote:

One neighbor in Montauk said Lindemann would have been better served to buy both properties. “If you buy the house, you’ve got to buy the barn. That was my opinion on whoever could afford the house…You’ve gotta buy the barn.”

Seemingly, Lindemann doesn’t want either. After failing to find a buyer in the summer of 2020, when it was asking $65 million, his Montauk estate is now listed on upscale Hamptons-specific website Out East as a short-term sublet at a price of $350,000. Mega-collecting couple Dasha Zhukova and Stavros Niarchos are among those who have rented it out, sources said.

Lindemann’s footprint in Montauk is diminishing. South Etna is also no longer in its former location; an Australian clothing store called Venroy took over the space. Lindemann denies that it is closed permanently though, and this month he is organizing an exhibition down the street at the Carl Fisher House using the South Etna name.

Full text:
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/hamptons-art-dealer-turf-war-2345875

Another example of former arrests in the New York art world:
五木田智央のニューヨークのアートディーラー、メアリー・ブーンは刑務所に30ヶ月間
GOKITA Tomoo’s New York Art Dealer Mary Boone sentenced to 30 Months in Prison
https://art-culture.world/articles/gokita-tomoos-new-york-art-dealer-mary-boone-sentenced-to-30-months-in-prison/

Or

Law
Billionaire Art Collector Joe Lewis Indicted in New York for Insider Trading and Financial Fraud

quotes:
Lewis has been a major player in the art market for decades. In 2015, he was revealed as the buyer of Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Gertrud Loew-Felsövanyi (1902) sold at Sotheby’s London in June of that year for $39 million. An investigation conducted by the Austrian daily Der Standard revealed the acquisition.
In 2016, the “Panama Papers” leak revealed that the landmark 1997 sale of the Victor and Sally Ganz collection at Christie’s was actually orchestrated by Lewis. The $206 million sale was conducted via Simsbury International Corp., a company, the papers note, which “appears to have been created solely for the Ganz transaction.” At the time, the sale set a private collection auction record, with Pablo Picasso’s Women of Algiers (version O) fetching a then-astounding $31.9 million. The transaction is still considered a watershed moment in the auction world.
Women of Algiers went on to sell for even more 18 years later, when it came back on the auction block at Christie’s and sold for a whopping $179.4 million.
The secret behind the November 1997 sale was that Lewis had already cherry-picked the best of the Ganz collection from a Christie’s subsidiary, London’s Spink & Son, on May 2 of that year. The same day, terms were drawn up for an auction at Christie’s, with the understanding that Lewis and Spink would share equally any profits from the sale above $168 million.
In other words it was an auction guarantee, well before auction guarantees were officially a thing. If the works failed to find a buyer on the auction block, Lewis would pay for them. The auction catalogue noted that “Christie’s has a direct financial interest in all property in this sale,” but much of risk appeared to have been Lewis’s, who was also the auction house’s primary shareholder at the time.
The following year, in 1998, Lewis sold his Christie’s stake to French billionaire Francois Pinault, who remains Christie’s owner to this day.
More recently, Lewis was identified as the seller of David Hockney’s massive Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972) that sold for $90.3 million at Christie’s New York in November 2018. It originally sold at the André Emmerich gallery, in New York, for $18,000. Lewis bought the Hockney from fellow billionaire collector David Geffen in 1995.
As Artnet News reported at the time, Lewis declined a guarantee on the Hockney and offered it without a reserve, according to people familiar with the matter.
full text:
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/billionaire-art-collector-joe-lewis-indicted-in-new-york-for-insider-trading-and-financial-fraud-2342056

Or, a pending court case in the New York art world:
アートアドバイザーの裏話 Art Advisor’s Backstory
https://art-culture.world/articles/art-advisor/