NEW YORK – A former studio assistant to artist Jasper Johns was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison for his role in the sale of 37 works that the assistant stole from John’s studio on Sharon, Connecticut, officials said.
James Meyer, 53, plead guilty on Aug. 27, 2014 to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods in federal court in Manhattan, officials said.
“Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “James Meyer betrayed the trust of his employer, Jasper Johns, by selling, for his own personal gain, works by the artist that were not authorized for sale,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
Adding, “Thanks to the hard work of the career prosecutors in my office and the FBI, Meyer’s fraud was uncovered and he will now go to prison for his actions.”
During the course of the almost six-year scheme, an art gallery sold 37 works of art on Meyer’s behalf for a total of approximately $10 million, of which approximately $4 million was remitted directly to Meyer.
During the sentencing, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken also ordered Meyer, of Salisbury, Connecticut, to pay restitution in the amount of $13.4 million.
“I destroyed the close relationship that I had with the man who was my mentor, employer and friend since I was 21 years old,” Meyer told the New York Daily News while getting choked up. “I took for granted and betrayed someone who will forever have great meaning in my life.”
According to the indictment and other court records and documents, this is what happened:
- Meyer was a studio assistant for Johns for over 25 years, and was responsible for, among other things, maintaining a studio file drawer containing pieces of art that were not yet completed by Johns and not authorized by Johns to be placed in the art market.
- During his period of employment for Johns, Meyer removed 83 individual pieces of art from the studio file drawer he was responsible for maintaining.
- Between September 2006 and February 2012, Meyer took more than half of those pieces to an art gallery in Manhattan for the purpose of selling those works without Johns’s knowledge or permission.
- Meyer lied to both to the owner of the “Gallery Owner” and to potential purchasers that these pieces had been given to him as gifts by Johns.
- As part of his scheme, Meyer provided sworn, notarized certifications stating that each piece was an authentic Johns work, that the art had been given to him by Johns, that he was the rightful owner of the piece, and that he had the right to sell that particular work.
- Meyer conditioned the sale of each of these works on the signed agreement by the purchaser that the art would be kept private for at least eight years, during which time the piece would not be loaned, exhibited, or re-sold.
- Meyer also created fictitious inventory numbers for these pieces to give the impression that they were finished works that were authorized by Johns to be sold in the art market.
- To facilitate certain sales, Meyer created fake pages that he inserted into a ledger book of registered pieces of art maintained at Johns’s studio.
- Subsequently, he photographed the artwork to give additional assurances to prospective buyers about the provenance, or history of ownership, of a particular piece.
Last year, a metal shop owner who attempted to sell and sold bronze sculptures that he misrepresented, including a Jasper Johns’ artwork, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, according to federal officials.
Brian Ramnarine, 60, plead guilty to fraudulently selling and attempting to sell, for more than $11 million, bronze sculptures that he falsely represented to be works of art by prominent artists Jasper Johns, Robert Indiana, and Saint Clair Cemin, officials said.