Boozy nights and high-stakes art trades with Inigo Philbrick.
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I was immediately smitten, professionally and personally; Philbrick was sharp, fun, and funny.
Its a game easy to gawk at but not as easy to be dealt into.
And Philbrick was determined to be a player.
Friends would accuse me of loving him, and I cant deny that.
Hed frequently slip my glasses on when Id remove them to text.
Through all of this, he helped me make a good deal of money, Ill admit.
Philbrick sauntered into the salesrooms like a seasoned veteran beyond his years with balls of steel.
Philbrick, it seemed, was a mini-Madoff of the art world.
It appears he could have cheated people out of $70 million or more.
I wasnt immune either; he took me his friend!
As all of this came to light, last November, he vanished.
As an art dealer,he had few rivals, from his generation or beyond.
In practice, this often means that only insiders can reliably make money in an art market.
Sometimes youd have to do clever things to get access.
The flip is what mattered, the prices going ever higher.
If this sounds like the condo market in Miami Beach in 2007, theres a reason for that.
The art market was estimated at $64 billion last year.
But the value of art in existence is much more.
There it sits, hopefully maturing in value like a vintage wine.
(Theres also wine and even cars parked in these facilities.)
How do you take advantage of that?
The art world is to some extent unregulated and not particularly transparent.
Stingels prices went up through 2017 but then began to fall.
you might partly credit, or blame, the election of Donald Trump for this.
Meanwhile, the prices of some artists of color skyrocketed.
Rather than rein his bets in, Philbrick seemed to grow ever more audacious.
Philbricks unbridled hubris had a big hand in his implosion, which is slowly becoming apparent still.
I should also mentionhis penchant for partying.
Not only did he drink, he had a hefty appetite for drugs and enjoyed the company of prostitutes.
As time went on, it became clear that it might be affecting his judgment.
He had no fear when it came to being caught with the contraband, or much else.
His easygoing sense of entitlement was partly bluff, partly something he was bred for.
His mother is a writer whom he never went into much detail about.
His father was selfish and capricious with money, at least according to him.
Philbrick once told me hed supported his mother and sister financially.
Though I never saw or had any contact with either woman throughout our relationship.
Its probably difficult to grow up around the very wealthy when you are merely upper-middle class and well educated.
Philbrick told me hed sworn to himself that, one day, that would be him.
Though they never married, Philbrick and Mancini had a baby daughter in 2017.
That same year, he began an affair with Victoria Baker-Harber.
Mancini and Baker-Harber were acquaintances and vacationed at the same summer rental in Ibiza.
In other words, its a cliche of obnoxious characters in toxic relationships, all striving for vacuous notoriety.
Its not too far removed from the art world these days.
He opened a gallery in Miami, and they spent more and more time there.
My family grew to expect such antics after just about every time he and I went out together.
He related this to me endearingly, while Baker-Harber recounted this unusual habit with more than a little alarm.
The young man was clearly under a great deal of pressure.
Maybe its meaning changed as his elaborate facade fell to pieces.
He even had a sweatshirt with INIGO INIGO INIGO printed on it that his girlfriend had made for him.
(Its not uncommon to jointly invest in a painting.)
Are you still with me?
(I didnt think so, but you get the idea.)
I happened to be the one who informed Pesko of Philbricks initial wrongdoing.
And often more than twice.
Not only should the buyer beware but the seller, too!
Sakhais father, Ely, served time in 2005 for selling forged art.
Sakhai told me hed like to get some out-of-work Mossad agents to track down Philbrick.
Works owned by Sakhai and Brooks ended up as collateral for Philbrick loans without their knowledge.
I received such a concocted SWIFT myself and was told of creative-condition reports from a young London-based French collector.
The stories of money he owed began to pile up and circulate.
An employee of the company confirmed to me that Philbrick indeed had tried unsuccessfully to purchase the damaged painting.
Vallarino and his partners closed down their art-finance company after their Philbrick experience.
(I can barely sell a painting once!)
Not to mention the speculation as to whats next.
It was after this time that he absconded.
Recently, the FBI is said to have taken an interest.
As he stated in a DM: Are you suggesting this was all done alone?
And besides, it was just regular art dealing like everyone else.
Certainly, no one of his generation came (or comes) close.
Have I learned anything?
For one thing, a year ago I stopped drinking.
Still, to this day, I catch myself reaching for the phone to seek his advice.
All this despite undefended lawsuits being filed against him by the bushel.
He showed regret and contrition, if only for a fleeting moment.
After a piece came out last week in theTimesabout him, I was DMd by another account, inspector_barker.
We soon began to argue over his treatment.
Ever heard of the phrase token villain, he DMd.
This was too much: I responded, Reality test.
Inigo inigo inigo look hard in the mirror.
I became convinced that this was Philbrick as well.
