In the first of what is likely to be many more settlements because New York State is engaged in a long-term investigation into what appears to be the abuse of resale certificates for art that is held or displayed in a collector/dealer’s home.
Auction houses and individuals have received subpoenas and now New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has settled with two prominent art world figures, Aby Rosen and Victoria Gelfand:
The New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, announced a $7 million settlement on Tuesday with Mr. Rosen for failing to pay taxes on $80 million in artwork that he had bought or commissioned since 2002.
[…] Mr. Schneiderman said his office had “uncovered serious abuses” of tax law in the course of the investigation, and he simultaneously announced a separate $210,000 settlement with Victoria Gelfand, an art dealer who had not paid sales or use taxes on 31 works purchased between 2005 and 2013, including John Baldessari’s “It Couldn’t Be Helped,” Richard Prince’s “Piney Woods Nurse,” and Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled No. 217.”
Ms. Gelfand is a director of the Gagosian Gallery, but the settlement involved works that she purchased over the past eight years through her own company, Artemis, said Deidre McEvoy, a lawyer at Patterson Belnap Web & Tyler who is representing Ms. Gelfand.
Ms. Gelfand intended to sell the works, Ms. McEvoy said, and she displayed some of the unsold art in her home.
Developer Aby Rosen to Pay $7 Million in Suit Over Unpaid Taxes on Art (The New York Times)
