The world seems to be full of strange stories of private art deals gone terribly wrong. Many of them seem to revolve around the idea that someone will buy a work for well below market price. Then, surprisingly, the too-goo-to-be-true deal turns out to be untrue. Here’s one from the New York Post where a man from Queens loaned another man $800,000 to buy a Warhol Mao portrait:

Yong Choi, of College Point, was approached in June 2008 by an intermediary who said Won Young Youn was looking to buy a Warhol silkscreen of Mao Tse Tung for the below-market price of $2 million, according to court papers and Choi’s lawyer, Stephen Song. Choi ponied up the money, according to papers filed in Queens Supreme Court. After failing to pay, Youn signed a promissory note for the entire amount, plus 9 percent interest due in full last Feb. 8. But no cash was forthcoming.

Warhol Fan’s $800G ‘Heist’ (NY Post)