Former Sotheby's Broker Ripped Off Art Sellers For Millions: DA

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An art broker who once worked for Sotheby's in New York City is facing at least four years in prison for stealing at least $10 million from clients who hired him to help sell paintings by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

Timothy Sammons, 63, was sentenced Tuesday to serve four to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to fifteen counts on charges such as grand larceny, and scheming to defraud, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced. The London-born broker was indicted in October 2017 after ripping off a number of clients in high-profile art sales through his private business Timothy Sammons Fine Art Agents, which had offices in New York, London and Zurich.

Sammons' scheme played out over five years between 2010 and 2015, prosecutors said. The broker would be hired by clients with the understanding that they would transfer an artwork to him, he would sell it and then return the proceeds after taking a commission. But instead of returning the money, Sammons pocketed the entire value of the sale to pay for first-class travel, hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to his American Express Centurion Card and private club memberships, prosecutors said.

When clients asked Sammons about their artworks he often told them that the paintings hadn't been sold yet and that they needed to be patient, prosecutors said. Sometime the broker simply ignored his clients' demands to return artworks or used the proceeds from another sale to pay off debts to his clients, prosecutors said.

The broker stole between $10 and $30 million from more than four clients he represented in deals for artworks such as Picasso's "Buste de Femme", Chagall's “Reverie” by Marc Chagall and Paul Signac's "Calanque de Canoubiers (Pointe de Bamer)." Sammons represented his clients in both private sales and art auctions, prosecutors said.

"When brokering the sales of high-priced, one-of-a-kind paintings, Timothy Sammons had lying, scamming, and stealing down to a fine art," Vance said in a statement. "For years, the defendant peddled a deceitful, money-spinning scheme, garnering the trust of prospective buyers and sellers only to defraud them of millions."