Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

The Effect of a Ponzi Scheme on the Art Market

January 29, 2019 by Marion Maneker

This commentary by Marion Maneker is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

Buying Art Like a Madman

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Head of a Madman (1982)

Two weeks ago, Artsy’s Nate Freeman did yeoman’s work piecing together the $400m or so in art purchases made by Low Taek Jho, the fugitive mastermind of Malaysia’s 1MDB Ponzi scheme, from the US Department of Justice’s asset forfeiture case filed in June of 2017 and a book by two Wall Street Journal reporters about the case. From The Billion-Dollar Whale, the book so-named for Jho Low’s reputation in Las Vegas as a heavy gambler and frequent loser,  Freeman culls the information that Low was the $170m underbidder on Pablo Picasso’s Femmes d’Algiers (Version O) from the Looking Forward to the Past sale in May of 2015.

Assembled all together, the revelations have had a galvanizing effect on many art market participants. Some see it as further proof that the art market is a vehicle for money laundering; others wonder about the effect on buyers who were forced to compete for works against Jho Low, the now-proven fraud. As one person close to the Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani of Qatar who has been long rumored to be the buyer of the Femmes d’Algiers (Version O) for a then-record price of $179m asks, “what must he be thinking now?”

With that question in mind, let’s look at the potential damage these revelations might have on the art market. We have a good case study in some of the artists Jho Low bought and even better evidence of whether his intent was to use the art market to launder money.


Sign up to Art Market Monitor Premium today

You need a membership to AMMpro to view this article and other exclusive content daily.

You can register today for $90 per month—with your first month free!—or for $756 per year (no free trial period.)

Screenshot 2016-08-05 16.28.45

If you already have an account, sign in here:

 
 
Forgot Password

Filed Under: Premium

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • A Season of Improvisation: Fall 2020 New York Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Analysis
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Sotheby's Evening Cont. Sale, London
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • Podcast
  • Re-discovered John Constable Painting at Sotheby's in December
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor