New York art adviser accused of ‘running a Ponzi scheme’ will have her collection auctioned off

It’s an auction that no one wants to see happen. 

The private collection of an alleged art world scammer, who long boasted about her connection to Leonardo DiCaprio, is going on sale next month in NYC to pay off some of her substantial debt. 

Lisa Schiff, 54, was, for more than a decade, a darling of the city’s art scene. She obtained multimillion- dollar paintings for boldfacers like the Oscar-winning actor along with Manhattan society figures such as real estate heiress Candace Barasch, private equity executive Thomas Hagerty, art world executive Adam Sheffer — “Lisa’s bestie,” an affluent source told The Post — and his spouse Richard Grossman 

Now, Schiff’s collection is being liquidated, following a declaration of bankruptcy, with the hopes of paying off former clients who turned into close friends.

Some 200 works — Schiff’s collection includes pieces by marquee names such as Damien Hirst, Dennis Hopper, David Israel, Judy Chicago and Richard Prince — will hit the block at Phillips auction house on Park Avenue in November. They’re expected to fetch $2 million altogether.

An art world insider expressed concern that the circumstances behind the sale will hobble prices.

“People don’t find it exciting to buy art that is caught up in scandal unless it’s a good opportunity,” the insider told The Post. “It’s one thing if that opportunity is a discreet private sale instead of a Phillips auction.”

But the sale may attract bargain hunters or long term investors, as per the insiders. 

“If there’s good stuff in there, it’ll sell. I don’t think you’ll get bigger numbers. If anything you’ll get lower numbers because of the cloud over everything,” the insider said. 

A Phillips spokesperson said “the company sets estimates that are reflective of the quality and rarity of the artworks, also taking into account recent comparable prices.”

 According to a civil complaint, filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York in May, Schiff’s one-time pals accuse her of “effectively … running a Ponzi scheme, taking funds, accounts and artworks entrusted to [her] by clients … and using them to fund Schiff’s own lavish lifestyle.”

Additionally, according to an affidavit filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York in August, Schiff owes millions to dozens of collectors, beyond those in the civil suit referenced above. The affidavit also shows her being in the hole to American Express for $524,000.

The Post has reached out to Schiff, through her lawyer, for comment. 

High-end collectors worked with Schiff because of the access she had to coveted works and the entities selling them. 

“She ran in the right circles, had access to the right people and got them the right artwork; she knew how to work a room,” said the insider.

Things supposedly went south when Schiff lacked the ready cash to make good on the sale of a $2.5 million painting by Adrian Ghenie, called “The Uncle 3.” It was sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong and she stalled Grossman and Barasch, who had gone in on the piece. 

Things quickly unraveled.

Grossman’s spouse, Sheffer, met with Schiff to follow up on the payments. Schiff, according to the complaint (in which he is not identified by name but IDed as Grossman’s spouse), told him she didn’t have the money and that he should call her attorney. Then she walked away.

A follow-up text from Schiff did not do much to assuage her clients. “I’m sorry and I have every intention to make things right … It’s just complicated … I know you will never speak to me again but I will try to make it right regardless,” it read, according to the complaint. 

The fall of their business relationship stings all the harder in light of the fact that dealings in the art business are not all business. Alignments that are most rewarding — financially and aesthetically — feel like friendships, according to the insider, even as they are built on multi-million dollar foundations.

“You’re going to art fairs together, you drink champagne together, you go to dinner together,” said the insider. “It is not like you’re sitting in a boardroom. In order for the fraud to grow, you need that relationship of trust and confidence.”

According to the complaint, Sheffer met Schiff around 2004 and they launched a business relationship that blossomed into a “deep personal friendship.”

Grossman and Sheffer attended the bris of Schiff’s son, operated as “adjunct parents” to the kid and traveled with mother and son.

Barasch was brought into the fold by Sheffer. She too became instantly tight with Schiff. The complaint states that they traveled together to art fairs and Schiff enjoyed a high-flying lifestyle.

The complaint maintains Barasch saw Schiff “spending tens of thousands of dollars at a time on couture and accessories, and making jewelry purchases of $20,000 at a time” and that she acknowledged paying $25,000 per month for apartment rent in Manhattan plus another $60,000 per year for her son’s tuition at the elite Grace Church School in downtown Manhattan. 

Schiff didn’t come from the art world but managed to work her way into the notoriously cliquish scene.

Raised in Miami, she graduated from University of Michigan with a degree in art history and moved to Manhattan.

She made her bones by working at Phillips —the very place where her collection is set to be liquidated — and Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art on Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side.

According to Town & Country, after she turned 30, in 1999, her parents cut her off financially and she went into business for herself as an art adviser. 

“It was kind of ballsy,” she once told Artsy. “I had no idea what I was doing. I just couldn’t function in the system. I was always feisty and frustrated.”

Nevertheless, something about her engendered trust from the people she represented. 

According to the complaint, “All funds for Barasch’s purchases and sales of artworks passed through [Schiff’s] accounts…” To make that happen, the complaint continues that Schiff “requested and received from Barasch authorization and access to certain of Barasch’s credit cards.”

As to what allowed her to gain such faith from the rich and fabulous, a fellow art adviser told The Post, “She was a mover and a shaker. She had desirable paintings, she had her finger on the pulse, found things that collectors wanted and did things right.”

The adviser conceded that Schiff had once snubbed him when he was brought up to her $25,000-per-month apartment and said that art hanging there was just “kind of OK.”

“I didn’t think anything was great,” the adviser continued. “[Big] names and, you know, modest paintings.”

He questioned her cred. 

“There are some great dealers who are really talented,” the adviser said. “[Others] spin their web. I think she was more of a web spinner.”

It clearly worked on a former client who counts herself among those who allege they were stiffed by Schiff.

 “She’s super smart and fun,” the collector said. “She seemed genuine. I think she got in over her head. I don’t think she’s evil or criminal or scheming or any of those things.”

Such sympathetic words suggest that Schiff could well make a comeback.

“You’d be surprised who you see walking around despite having been caught up in something like this,” said the insider. “I’ve seen people defrauded and then they go [return] to the same dealer for a second go because there is an opportunity to make money. I can only imagine a comeback somewhere.”