Douglas Christmas, a prominent art dealer convicted in May of three counts of embezzling from his gallery’s bankrupt estate, was sentenced Monday in federal court to 24 months in prison.
Mr. Christmas, 80, helped shape the Los Angeles art scene of the 1970s and ’80s through passionate exhibitions at his gallery, Ace. But he was dogged by lawsuits from artists and landlords over lack of payment, even as Andy Warhol described the lack of compensation for sales in a 1979 diary. Mr. Christmas has spent most of the last decade embroiled in it. Protracted bankruptcy proceedings.
Sentencing was postponed until this month, and in the interim his defense attorneys filed briefs urging a “non-custodial sentence” such as probation, citing his age as a factor. Federal prosecutors argued for 10 years of the maximum 15-year prison sentence.
Currently out on bond, Mr. Christmas is scheduled to report to prison on February 17.
The government presented statements from victims of Mr Christmas’s crimes. In an affected statement, Robert Kwan, a U.S. bankruptcy judge who presided over Ace’s Chapter 11 proceedings, wrote: “These misappropriations of approximately $264,000 in funds that were found in the criminal case only ‘Ace Berg’s head’, was just one part of a wider pattern and process of misappropriation of funds” by Mr Christmas, “which resulted in a loss of more than $14 million to the bankrupt estate.”
Mr Kwan described the “integrity of the bankruptcy system” as a “tremendous intangible loss”, resulting in “expensive investigations and litigation”.
In a statement by the appointed bankruptcy trustee, Sam Leslie, Mr. Leslie described a “pattern of lies and theft” by Mr. Christmas, including diverting funds from his gallery to a defunct New York gallery and a dysfunctional museum. I was involved in moving. Mr. Leslie, who brought a civil suit against Mr. Christmas, and obtained a. Judgment against them in 2022said that “the amount he turned over, more than $14 million, would be enough to pay all the creditors in the Chapter 11 case. Instead, the rest of the claims would never be paid.”
Prosecutors also subpoenaed FBI interviews with some artists who had long been owed money by Mr. Christmas. my coursewho performed with Ace on and off for decades. (She now shows with the piece.) In the interview, she said that Mr. Christmas owed her about $3 million for the sale of his artwork. He recovered some of his paintings as part of bankruptcy proceedings but noted that Mr. Christmas still had about 10 of his pieces. Some artists said they could not speak openly because of confidentiality clauses in the townships.
Still, Mr. Christmas enjoys some loyalty among an older generation of collectors, who in 2024 wrote more than a dozen letters of character support to the presiding judge, Mark Scorsese, seeking a shorter sentence. . Many have described his expansive and experimental vision for Ace, which he opened in Los Angeles in 1967. The gallery gave important, early shows to artists who tested the limits of galleries, such as Robert Irwin, Michael Heiser and Donald Judd.
Jarl MohanA major Los Angeles arts patron who was president of National Public Radio wrote in support of his letter that he had purchased many works of art from Mr. Christmas over the years. “I always felt I paid a price that was fair to me, the gallery and the artists.” “And each of these works is significantly more valuable today because of the guidance of Christmas.”
Many letters emphasize that Mr. Christmas lived “simply” or “modestly.” Cliff Einstein, a former chairman of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, called her “absolutely selfless” in her support of the arts. “Unlike many of today’s successful art dealers, I never saw Douglass advance his personal lifestyle or use the proceeds of his sales for anything, but his success in these places. And has seen reinvestment in exhibitions that he hoped would benefit his artists.”