I’ve been following the Lisa Schiff story well before she became known as one of the top recent scandals of the art world for stealing from her collector clients and owing an absurd amount of money and artwork to some very angry rich people, including the state of New York. Her recent NY Times interview “Art Advisor, Friend, Thief” compelled me to share my thoughts on her situation. My interest for her comes from the fact that I was her first employee, and she gave me my first real job in 2006. I’ve been hesitant to speak out about her out of respect for her privacy and because just like I felt proud of her for thriving in the art world as she did for so long after I decided to not work for her, I now feel really conflicted about where she is and the possibility of her facing up to 20 years in prison. Go here to read some of the details of her ponzi scheme.
BACK in 2006, baby Tina gets a big girl job
The job was intimate in nature. I had just graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and responded to an ad on NYFA.org for an assistant gig to an art advisor. When I had my interview with her, she made me feel validated for the education I pursued despite having grown up in the Miami she didn’t really relate to but knew of being from the more wealthy side of the city or as 305 people would say, the white side of US1. She was impressed by my time working for the Rubell Family Collection, and for doing an internship at the Rosa De La Cruz Collection. I was green but what I did know aligned with the trajectory of her growing business. A strong awareness of contemporary art, discretion and hustle.
I worked out of an average sized Tribeca apartment from a desk in her bedroom with an amazing view of Manhattan south. She offered me a starting salary that was generous then, an Equinox gym membership, lunches and dinners on late nights of work and gave me a good amount of gifts including art magazines and books and hand-me-down designer clothes since we were the same size and she shopped often. She had a driver, a cleaning woman and an IT guy on call. She was often away, traveling nationally and internationally for art fairs and I was always on call for anything she needed. At any hour. She even encouraged me to get a small dog I could bring to work so she could enjoy him too which is when I got Reggie. She sent me to auctions at Sotherbys and Christies and brought me along to private viewings of works at some of the most prestigious NYC galleries and graduate MFA programs like the one at Yale where I met Ruby Stiler whose work I still love. I accompanied her on some of her trips to visit US clients, most of whom she treated like best friends because they seemed to be. Sadly, some of whom are suing her now. I think Lisa exposed me to her circle to give me access and experience and possibly to see if this would be my calling too. It was not.
If you read my first post, this was the job I left to get my life together. The job, while challenging because I was so accountable to this woman’s very busy life, was probably one of the most supportive things I had at the time but my performance was taking a nosedive. When I approached Lisa about how I was feeling due to my personal life collapsing, she was compassionate and offered to have me work remotely from Miami for a month with pay on the condition I would come back to NY to keep working for her, refreshed and ready to move forward. In 2006, that was a rarity. No one worked remotely. No boss would give you that space and time to take care of yourself. Rare to find even now. “Mental Health” was not a common term. She had already hired a young girl from London who had major go getter energy, wore all black, came from money and only ate tomatoes and cottage cheese. The girl was nice but I understood what was happening. It started to become evident, “London” would be more of the face of the company with her and I would stay behind to continue to manage the paperwork I was buried under. I went home to Miami, defeated but grateful I had this option.
My decision to stop working for Lisa Schiff had nothing to do with her. Working on the administrative side of things helped me confirm I wanted to be the artist that was receiving the studio visits, being collected, in exhibitions, printed in catalogues but most importantly, in the studio, making the work. I had plenty to say but I lacked the courage to do it. Few of the artists I handled sales for were latinx. That bothered me immensely. I even remember mentioning this to her but it fell on deaf ears. Why weren’t our voices part of this economy, being seen as a priority in building these collections? Being from Miami and witnessing the start and initial growth of Art Basel, I knew there were plenty latinx artists worth collecting, contemporary and from the past. That awareness made me question why I wasn't making work myself. Practically speaking, living in NY did not allow me the space and time to invest in my art practice and to be honest, I was consumed with crippling anxiety trying to keep up with her, my failing relationship and the absurd cost of living. Taking 6 trains a day to get to and from work everyday alone would kill anyone’s spirit. This was the moment where I had to decide if I was going to be an artist and what next steps I had to take to do that. Quitting NY and everything in it was necessary.
When I told her I was not coming back, she never spoke to me again. Her IT guy reached out to arrange for the laptop I was working on and the archive I organized of hers and her clients collection be sent back and that was it. I was either more dispensable than I wanted to believe or she was disappointed, or both. Either way, out of shame I never once listed this job on my resume and never felt good about quitting. I was grateful to her but I knew I had to leave. It was the first time I left a good job for a major life change of my own choosing and ultimately it was the best decision I could have ever made. Not because of where she is now and the criminal charges she has admitted to, but my gut told me so.
Lisa Schiff and Schiff Fine Art Advisory grew immensely after I left. She had a handful of young women working for her, she did lectures and it seemed she was big on educating the public on how to create collections of art work intentionally. She even opened a brick and mortar space and reached a high level of respect as an art advisor. She became an advocate for art collecting and I loved following this about her career.
Lisa was not a criminal when I worked for her, at least I don’t think she was. Nor two-faced. Nor shady in any way. She was warm, sweet, polite, kinda hilarious and treated everyone well and always paid people who worked for her without fail. What the fuck happenned? I have so many questions! When did things start to go south for her? What sale put her over the edge? Why didn’t she ask for help? Did anyone else know? She must have had financial advisors to manage that much money? Did she also have difficulty recovering from the financial impacts from COVID? Is this addiction? I can’t imagine what her team feels like right now. Shock? Shame? Petrified to be implicated?
Schiff Fine Art Advisory in NYC
She blatantly admits to having screwed up and faces some difficult court hearings to determine her punishment but what few articles seem to address is that the art world and particularly the financial dynamics of the art market in the US are at the core long overdue for being checked. For example, people like Lisa benefit from the resales of artworks by charging a fee as part of services for acquiring pieces for clients. They provide a service but there is also very little to regulate what those pieces resell for. Sometimes there are contracts that restrict what happens to the pieces for a certain amount of time after the sale, sometimes not. Something I’ve always found deeply problematic is that the artists never get royalties from the resales of their works in the US but countries such as Italy and France have laws implemented to give artists and even dead artist estates royalties for the secondary sales of their artworks. Not having this regulated in the states hugely benefits art advisors, consultants, galleries and ultimately collectors. Artists may benefit in that the value of their works could potentially go up and catch more demand and relevance…..but none of these are guarantees. Here’s a video of her talking about the art market in 2022.
Is the US art market ripe for audit?
In the US, art is seen as real-estate and investment. Many of the works purchased by private collectors end up in temporary storage, till they seem worth reselling OR unless you followed the example of the Rubells and Margulies families who built museums to showcase their extensive collections for public viewing. I’m sure there is some tax incentives but blah, blah, blah, I know zip about all that to be frank. From what I remember back when I was employed by her, Lisa’s bread and butter clients were not striving to be top collectors nor offer access to the public of their works. They were privileged AF and dabbling in a new kind of investment managed by a very well connected, educated friend who was good at what she did. They needed her to know what was relevant to buy and sell and when, and her team to manage the to and fro of the pieces (insurance, consignments, storage, condition reports, archiving….etc). I feel Lisa was trying to advocate for educated art collecting while appearing to respect the ways of the market but apparently not. The contradiction is just too juicy.
She fascinates me more now that I know this side of her. I briefly knew Lisa as a person and a boss what feels like 8 lives ago. I was young but did not see this coming. I am not interested in defending her actions but I do want to humanize her because there is an agenda to her demise aside from justice. Both by the law and by the privileged, a circle she was very much an insider of. Twenty years in prison is on par with some maximum murder sentences in some states. Just very disturbingly ironic that this is happening while a known con-artist and criminal somehow elected President, again, is handing out pardons for people who have real blood on their hands. The blood of service people by the way.
I honestly feel she is being made an example of and knows it. And I can’t help but feel that is easier to exploit because she is a woman who once very much thrived, on her own in the art world. See any parallels to the Martha Stewart scandal? The message is clear: Don’t steal from your rich friends. Don’t fuck with the art world. Carry on as is.
I wonder who will play her in her biopic. Any guesses? In the meantime, le predo una velita, she’s gonna need it.
Thanks for reading.