A Prominent Art-Finance Company Says Embattled Dealer Inigo Philbrick Owes It $15 Million for a Loan He Never Paid Back

A prominent art-lending company has become the latest entity
embroiled in the widening scandal surrounding art dealer Inigo
Philbrick.

The company, Athena Art Finance, filed a formal request with the
New York State Supreme Court on December 10, seeking to reclaim
$14.9 million, plus attorneys fees and court costs, from a deal
with Philbrick gone awry. Representatives for Athena Art Finance
declined to comment.

According to the documents, Athena began doing business with
Philbrick and his related companies in January 2017, loaning him
$10 million against a number of blue-chip artworks that he is now
accused of already having sold to multiple other clients. The
original loan was due to be paid in full, plus interest, on March
31, 2020. Then, on May 25, 2018, the two sides reached another
agreement whereby the amount of the loan was increased to $13.5
million. It carried the same maturity date of March 2020.

Things began to fall apart in October of this year, right around
the time the first rumors of Philbrick’s financial troubles started
circulating through art-world gossip mills. On October 1,
Philbrick’s company “breached its obligations under the loan
documents by failing to make an interest payment of $102,590,”
which put him in default of the loan, according to Athena’s filing.
(The filing is a request for summary judgment, not a formal
lawsuit.)

On October 4, even as things were clearly beginning to unravel
for Philbrick, he sent an email to Athena CEO Cynthia Sachs to
reassure her all was well. “Your interest payment will be with you
by Wednesday, sorry for the delay,” he wrote. “In the meantime, I’m
doing a deal with a client who knows that I have loans on the large
Wool and the Stingel triptych. He was wondering if it is possible
to make payment directly to Athena prior to his acquisition so that
he knows these are cleared. Can you advise? Many thanks!
Inigo.”

Athena later received letters from parties purporting to be the
“rightful owners” of the works used as collateral to secure the
loan.

Most, if not all, of the artworks at issue appear to be the same
ones that are the subject of overlapping legal claims from a number
of the dealer’s former associates: Fine Art Partners, a
Berlin-based investment firm that had an art-flipping agreement
with Philbrick; Satfinance, an investment vehicle run by collector
Sasha Pesko; and Guzzini Properties, a firm whose backers were
recently revealed as UK tycoons Simon and David Reuben, who have a
combined net worth of $12.6 billion,
according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Philbrick’s whereabouts are currently unknown and his two former
gallery spaces, in Miami and London, have been shuttered. His Miami
attorney recently filed a motion to withdraw as counsel, writing
that the dealer has “failed to fulfill his obligations.” The
UK High Court has granted requests from three separate plaintiffs
to freeze Philbrick’s assets.

The works allegedly used for collateral to secure the Athena
loan include two by Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (2004) and
Untitled (Triptych) (2015); Jean-Michel
Basquiat’s Humidity (1982); Donald Judd’s
Untitled (1976); and Christopher Wool’s
(Untitled) (2010).

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Dealer Inigo Philbrick Owes It $15 Million for a Loan He Never Paid
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