Inigo Philbrick was born in Redding, Connecticut, in 1987. His father, Harry Philbrick, ran the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and was later the head of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum and founded Philadelphia Contemporary.
According to an art journalist and former friend of the dealer who was stung in one of Philbrick’s alleged frauds, Kenny Schachter, the senior Philbrick’s résumé lent Inigo,
“a foundation of knowledge but not a load of dough, so he’s informed and hungry.”
Schachter wrote on Artnet News in December of 2018,
“The young dealer … has kept a low profile as a secondary trader well known among the cognoscenti for being shrewd and having a mind of his own… a rarity in the market.”
At just 23, Philbrick was promoted to head of secondary market sales at White Cube.
And, well, long story, short, Philbrick’s rise was somewhat meteoric;
he got financial backing from White Cube’s Jay Jopling to set up Modern Collections, on Mayfair’s Mount Street that dealt in contemporary artists. The operation was a success
he soon graduated to the auction houses. At one evening sale at Christie’s in New York in November 2011, Philbrick out-muscled the competition to take home a piece by Andreas Gursky for $4.33 million, a record for the artist and a record for a photograph bought at auction.
According to ARTnews, their company, Guzzini Properties, claims to have bought Rudolf Stingel’s 2012 portrait of Picasso (along with two other works) in 2017 for $6 million from Philbrick. It then claims to have sold the Stingel through Christie’s in May 2019 for $6.5 million. But Christie’s still holds the work, because two other companies ALSO claim to own it.
Judd Grossman, a lawyer representing several people suing Philbrick said,
“He ran in the right circles, had access to artworks and people with money, and was producing good returns—which is obviously attractive to investors and collectors alike.
As the people were catching on to his cons, in October 2019, Philbrick wrote to a reporter at ARTnews.
“The story is going to be a cautionary one with regards to the professionalization, securitization and legalization of the art world. We are in a period of massive transition where art dealers, collectors, and investors are attempting to turn the arena into one which mimics the worlds of finance and real estate. Alongside this change will naturally come impropriety and the need for increased due caution.”
That was one of the last statements made by Philbrick. As of last December, he has gone missing and his Mayfair gallery is shuttered. The e-mail addresses and phone lines are dead.
Kenny Schachter is attempting to develop the saga into a screenplay and is in virtual pursuit. In December he put out this faux wanted poster on Instagram, requesting any information that could lead to Philbrick’s arrest. Schachter quickly heard from a now deleted account called @steve_irwin_pets. The message sought to defend the dealer:
“Hopefully everybody will see the fact he was a young man in an immense position of responsibility out of nowhere who wanted to make everybody happy and over promised and under delivered [sic] in the end but to no personal benefit.”
After a few hours of online chatting, however, the account’s third-person speech slipped into a first-person rebuttal.
“It’s no big deal, I did nothing wrong and It will all be forgotten soon.
Much better idea is to mediate and find a way forward. Nobody was stiffed, it was just a few bad deals. Things will be made good.”
That column written by Schachter about Philbrick in December 2018 seems pretty ironic and on the nose today,
“In the end, I wouldn’t say he’s ruthless, and I certainly do adore him. But you know art dealers—he’s as cold blooded as the best that ever was.”
