The well-known art collector and financier Asher Edelman has instituted a lawsuit in Manhattan claiming that his firm, ArtAssure, was fleeced of over $200 million arising out of an allegedlly fraudulent art transaction.
ArtAssure claims that it was fraudulently induced by the Swiss firm Artmentum to believe that Japan’s Hiroshima Art Museum was trying to sell approximately $400 million in art by masters such as Picasso, Renoir, Monet, van Gogh and Matisse. The complaint alleges the art was not for sale, and that the claims that the Hiroshima museum works and the Japanese government owned the majority interest in Hiroshima Bank were false.
An interesting legal issue will involve the damages, and whether ArtAssure is entitled to damages if the sale was never consummated. However, one should not underestimate Mr. Edelman who, among other things, is known for teaching a course called “Corporate Raiding – The Art of War” at Columbia using Sun Tzu’s The Art of War as his textbook.