The global art market is valued at $64 billion according to Bloomberg.Â
Despite high profile fraud cases transactions in the art world remain opaque and sales are still conducted on handshakes. The latest story on the newswires is alleged fraud attributed to an art advisor who legitimately married into the Gulbenkian family, whose descendants include a Portugese oil baron who funded a $3.6 billion foundation. The trouble is, Angela Gulbenkian, is the wife of the founders grandnephew, but he isn’t connected to the foundation, nor to the founder’s legendary art collection.  Now she is being accused of fraud in not delivering a $1.4 million Kusama sculpture and the art world has another story about dealers and collectors who believed stories they heard and didn’t complete due diligence before doing business with her. Click here to read more.