Alas I have back-up! Here comes the Creative Calvary! Some of the artists who marched on the Puck building where Ivanka lives are titled ‘Warhol’s Children. Do they realize they are doing what the real Tea Party did over two hundred years ago? Has it occured to anyone that the reason Trump won, is, he admitted he was a Tax Evader and would never reveal his taxes? Millions of Americans are Tax Evaders. Would Trump take away the power of the IRS when he becomes President? Trump is putting billionaires on his cabinet. Do they bank offshore? No one wants to pay taxes – especially the President Elect. We the People must protest! We must be the real Minutemen and march to the foreigners towers!
Many of the signs were addressed directly to Ivanka—DEAR IVANKA: DON’T DEPORT OUR FRIENDS, DEAR IVANKA: BAN BANNON!! SHUT DOWN SESSIONS, DEAR IVANKA: TELL YOUR DAD WE PAY TAXES AND HE SHOULD TOO, DEAR IVANKA YOUR DADDY IS SCARY AS HELL.
It’s all here, the climax! My Big Beautiful Bicycle’ has cone true. Edward Weston’s photographs have been seized. Consider the boxes of tea that were seized by the true Patriots. Green Diesel is a fake company. Consider the Green Swastika and the garage full of Rosamond lithographs. People were taking illegal tax right-offs!
“The owner of Green Diesel, Philip J. Rivkin, used part of the proceeds of the fraud to purchase at least $18 million worth of artwork, chiefly photographs. On Jan. 30, 2012, Rivkin caused 396 packages of artwork to be transported to a warehouse on Frelinghuysen Avenue in Newark. The artwork was stored there until late June 2012, when it was moved to a warehouse in New York on its way to Spain. On July 12, 2012, it was seized for forfeiture pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk in Newark.”
My kindred, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was a good friend of Warhol and Michael Jackon, who took up art at Liz’s suggestion!
“No representation without taxation!”
“Show us you tax returns!”
Jon Presco
More than 150 artists, curators and gallery workers turned out Monday night to march in front of a Downtown Manhattan building where Ivanka Trump, the future first daughter, has an apartment and is believed to keep some pieces of a notable contemporary collection.
“The KKK Took the White House Away” and “Dear Ivanka Your Daddy Is Scary As Hell”.
Making art with political or philosophical leaning can be problematic for a market that is, as he says, about hyper-capitalism, in which artworks can become a way to keep score in an unregulated financial game—“poker chips for billionaires.” “It’s a shame when other people’s gambling habits change the meaning of paintings,” he says, “or when fluctuations of value start to dictate how people perceive art because it’s too expensive to be interesting or moving. That’s when I get bummed out.”
Hypothetically, someone could buy millions of dollars worth of art without the IRS knowing, and then later sell those works for a “legitimate” profit that looks clean on taxes.
If it’s so easy, why aren’t more people doing it?
Well, they are. In 2014, Texas business man Phillip Rivkin was charged with 68 counts of fraud after using millions of dollars worth of photographs to launder money. He had made over $78 million through fraudulent schemes involving his biodiesel production companies—which didn’t actually produce any biodiesel. Rivkin spent roughly $16 million dollars on 2,200 fine art photographs by artists like Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston. Works included Edward Weston’s Dunes, Oceano,
First-Daughter-elect Ivanka Trump’s Instagram is littered with photos of contemporary art, mainly pieces she owns and artists she patronizes. From shots of her posing with work by Nate Lowman, Dan Colen, and Alex Israel, we can glean that Ms. Trump loves #art almost as much as she loves #fashion. But for many in the New York art world reeling from the election of her father, the romance is not mutual. Artist Jonathan Horowitz and curator Alison Gingeras have organized a grassroots movement in the form of an Instagram account @dear_ivanka, and a candlelit vigil this evening at the corner of Lafayette and Houston.
The protest will be in shouting distance of the Puck Building, owned by Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner and home to very, very expensive lofts and businesses. The building has been a symbol of the city’s tackiest since it featured in Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel American Psychoas a party venue. Tonight, art people who have likely rubbed shoulders with Ivanka and Jared at the very types of events Ellis satirized will come together with signs like “The KKK Took the White House Away” and “Dear Ivanka Your Daddy Is Scary As Hell”.
The contemporary art world in New York is not known for its political cohesion or conviction, at least in recent years. But more than 150 artists, curators and gallery workers turned out Monday night to march in front of a Downtown Manhattan building where Ivanka Trump, the future first daughter, has an apartment and is believed to keep some pieces of a notable contemporary collection.
The quiet, orderly protest in front of the Puck Building, owned by the family of Ms. Trump’s husband, the developer and investor Jared Kushner, drew well-known artists like Cecily Brown, Rob Pruitt, Ryan McNamara, Jonah Freeman, Dan Colen and Marilyn Minter, whose work is the subject of a retrospective now on view at the Brooklyn Museum. Nate Lowman, an artist whose work Ms. Trump is known to collect, also marched, along with the art dealer Bill Powers.
“The culture changes, and fascism rears its ugly head every so often and that’s what’s happening now,” said Ms. Minter, marching with a battery-powered candle and a sign that made a comically profane reference to Donald J. Trump’s claim to have grabbed women’s genitals. “We wanted to do something to start to the ball rolling, to grow a protest, and we’re artists, so we know how to make posters.”
https://www.artsy.net/article/editorial-the-artsy-questionnaire-ivanka-trump-shares-her
Lowman, 33, is affiliated with a group of New York artists once dubbed Warhol’s Children. Linked by attitude (irreverent, punky) and shared interests (skateboarding, graffiti), Lowman and his peers—Dan Colen, Leo Fitzpatrick, photographer Ryan McGinley, and the late Dash Snow—achieved notoriety early in their careers for bringing downtown nonconformity to the art mainstream.
Making art with political or philosophical leaning can be problematic for a market that is, as he says, about hyper-capitalism, in which artworks can become a way to keep score in an unregulated financial game—“poker chips for billionaires.” “It’s a shame when other people’s gambling habits change the meaning of paintings,” he says, “or when fluctuations of value start to dictate how people perceive art because it’s too expensive to be interesting or moving. That’s when I get bummed out.”
https://rosamondpress.com/2013/02/23/victors-victoria/
https://rosamondpress.com/2014/05/01/my-big-beautiful-blue-bicycle/
https://rosamondpress.com/2016/04/17/stackpoles-bohemian-circle-2/
https://rosamondpress.com/2015/10/15/christine-and-elizabeth-rosemond/
https://rosamondpress.com/2014/10/25/michael-jackson-a-closeted-artist-2/
For the last week, Ms. Trump has been the subject of a new Instagram account called dear_ivanka, which posts generally glamorous social-media or publicity pictures of the president-elect’s daughter alongside captions addressed to her that express fears about Mr. Trump’s policy positions, about the potential for political corruption because of the Trump family’s international business interests and about the racist and xenophobic views of some of Mr. Trump’s supporters.
More essential than ever.
A post on Nov. 23 said: “Your father’s choice to head up the EPA, Myron Ebell, is a fanatical anti-science, anti-environmentalist climate change denier. I’m afraid for what’s at stake.” Previous posts included messages such as “Dear Ivanka, I’m an American Muslim and I was attacked on the subway” and “Dear Ivanka, I’m black and I’m afraid of Jeff Sessions.” (Mr. Ebell, who directs environmental and energy policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian advocacy group partly financed by the coal industry, is leading Mr. Trump’s transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Sessions, the Republican senator from Alabama and Mr. Trump’s choice to become attorney general, was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 amid accusations of racially charged comments.)
The Instagram account, begun by an art-world group that includes the artist Jonathan Horowitz, the independent curator Alison Gingeras and Mr. Powers, calling themselves the Halt Action Group, links to a website, dearivanka.info, whose front page features a picture of Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner, both of whom are advisers to Mr. Trump’s transition team. Under the headline “Ivanka, It’s not okay,” the site says “racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and homophobia are not acceptable anywhere— least of all in the White House. Steve Bannon has no place in the White House. Jeff Sessions has no place in the White House. Talk of a Muslim registry has no place in the White House. Hate has no place in the White House. We refuse to ‘wait and see.’ We look to you as the voice of reason.”
https://rosamondpress.com/2016/10/03/the-artful-tax-dodger/
https://rosamondpress.com/2012/08/14/mark-presco-on-human-parasites/
Four years before my famous rich and famous sister died, our mother hinted Christine was in trouble with the IRS, and, Mark Presco encouraged her not to pay taxes – because he did not pay taxes! He wanted Christine Rosamond Benton – to be as smart as he was! Two years after the probate, Mark blessed Lying Tom Snyder’s book. I asked him why he didn’t contribute? He said;
“I couldn’t think of anything nice to say about her!”
He went on to say he thought about filing a claim with her estate because he lent her $3,000 dollars, and wouldn’t pay her back. Our sister had filed Bankruptcy. Why didn’t Mark write his investment off as a Tax Write-off? I believe the IRS doesn’t know he exists. He wanted me to include parts of his racist rants in my autobiography. I refused! Rosamond was a famous woman painter. Mark wanted me to be his Ghost Writer – because he could not USE Christine’s fame to air his evil ideas, or, her might go to jail!.
https://rosamondpress.com/2015/12/17/44802/
“In Mr. Sydney Morris’s Report of the Administration he says on page 4 line 10;
“Petitioner hired Stacey Pierrot, who had been assistant manager of the gallery during Decedent’s lifetime, to run the gallery and prepare and execute a marketing plan. The gallery was run by the estate until March 1996 when the gallery was sold to Ms. Pierrot through a contract approved by this Court. During the time that the estate operated the gallery, aggressive marketing efforts were made in an attempt to stir interest in Decedent’s work and increase the potential market for her work. In spite of these efforts, interest in Decedent’s work continued to wane.”
On page six, Mr. Morris explains why there was a delay in the closing of the estate;
“By September 2000, however, plans were underway for a biography of Decedent, which Petitioner hoped might create interest in her work. The book was published in 2002. Although the book did not spur the hoped-for interest in Decedent’s life and work, efforts continued to market the concept of a screenplay based upon Decedent’s life. Petitioner hoping that this might be brought to fruition, elected to keep the estate open. However, it is the Petitioner’s belief the likelihood of an increased interest in Decedents work is negligible, and the time has come to close the estate.”
In 1987 I beheld my father wearing a white jacket with a cote of arms on it that read
“Von Prescowitz” I asked him for details and he told me he had s study done – that he refused to tell me about., Victor wrote this jacket to Carmel and met the famous actor Jimmy Stewart, whom Rosamond did a portrait of. Rosemary had a video of this.
Christine Rosamond Benton had formed seven partnerships according to a data base I looked at in Sacramento. In 1986 Christine formed a partnership with her father and sister, using monies left to Vic Presco by his mother, and monies Vicki Presco took from a joint account she had with her mentally ill husband whose violence forced Vicki to join the Navy to get away from him. Ken Prather bonded with an heiress of the Levi Straus family, who offered to help Ken whack my younger sister. Ken and Vicki, and my father, did not like to pay their taxes. After Christine and Garth refused to give Vic and Vicki any proceeds from the sale of the four images they invested in, Vic turned the Benton’s into the IRS, because, he believed they turned him into the IRS. Mark Presco also evades paying his taxes. This is why I forbid my MINOR daughter, Heather Hanson, and her mother, Patrice Hanson, to have anything to do with my family.
From 1994 to 1997 there was a information blackout about Rosamond. Only after Sydney Morris sold all the posters and prints to Stacey Pierrot, did she put up a webpage. Three years went by before Rosamond’s fans heard a peep. Surely the time was ripe to build up Rosamond’s waning popularity. Sure the probate was taking long time, but, there was another factor. Morris told me the IRS was coming in for back taxes, and there might not be anything left of the estate. It sounded like one or both Bentons might go to jail for tax evasion. I wonder who that would be, the money-earning artist and mother of a eight year old, or, the husband who lived off Rosamond’s fame for years? Was Christine about to come clean – now that she was sober?
Christine had formed seven partnerships, one being with Lawrence Chazen who claims he was a victim of a ponzi scheme involving other folks. One could claim a hefty tax right-off if these rosy prints did not sell.
Did people lie low, until the IRS went away? Pierrot looks like The Front.
Peter Max, whose psychedelic Pop Art of the 1960’s turned the artist himself into an art-world icon, was charged yesterday with failing to report $1.1 million in art sales to the Internal Revenue Service.
A Federal grand jury in Manhattan also indicted Mr. Max, 58, on charges that he bartered his paintings as part payment for homes in Woodstock, N.Y., and Southampton, L.I., and in St. John in the United States Virgin Islands. The indictment says he failed to declare the “sale” of those paintings on his income tax returns.
After learning he was under criminal investigation in November 1990, the indictment charges, Mr. Max and his accountant, Rubin Gorewitz, 71, tried to conceal income from the I.R.S. by faking sales receipts for the art that had been traded for real estate.
World Banks have been fined six billion dollars. Lawrence Chazen set up Noble Oil in Rougemont Switzerland. I asked the executor o Rosamond’s artistic and literary legacy to give me an advance on my claim so I could hire a detective to locate my children a Seer said I had. This was evidence I was insane. Stealing billions from people is seen as sane. I am the only family member that got behind my niece, the adult heir, that was also made out to be insane. “I am a member in good standing of the State Bar of California and an attorney
on record for 50% interest in Shannon Rosamond. In my 16 years as a member of
the State Bar California, I have never experienced a more deliberate fraud on
any court or more reckless and calculated attempt to fraudulently take control
of a probate estate at the exclusion of the lawful heirs and total manipulation
of a tester’s intent that the present efforts of Attorney’s Robin Beare,
Lawrence J. Chazen and Garth Benton, the descendants former spouse.”
“Over the specific argument of Ms. Beare, Judge Silver refused to appoint Mr.
Chazen. Neither Ms. Beare nor Mr. Chazen disclosed to the court the very
critical fact that Mr. Chazen has the largest single creditor’s claim against
the estate and is a former business partner and business associate of Garth
Benton who the court had removed as Special Administer just moments before.”
https://rosamondpress.com/2011/09/05/lawrence-chazen-and-family-partnership/
Casinos, stockbrokers, mortgage brokers, etc. must report any suspicious activity or questionable funds to the government. And banks must report any transactions over $10,000 as suspicious activity.
However, the art market—where the price of an artwork can rise or fall by the thousands from one sentence to the next, deals are made in secrecy, and “private collectors” remain anonymous—is virtually unregulated.
“The tax laws in art make it basically legal to not pay taxes on art. If you’re a serious art buyer, you just get a good tax accountant,” former New York-based art consultant Beth Fiore tells Hopes&Fears. “If you show newly purchased works in certain museums then you never have to pay taxes on it.” Edward Winkleman of Winkleman Gallery maintains that his gallery keeps fastidious records of all transactions and pays taxes even on cash sales. But he admits that, “the state generally wouldn’t question what is reported.” He also tells us that individual sales don’t need to be reported, only the totals for each quarter. Hypothetically, someone could buy millions of dollars worth of art without the IRS knowing, and then later sell those works for a “legitimate” profit that looks clean on taxes.
If it’s so easy, why aren’t more people doing it?
Well, they are. In 2014, Texas business man Phillip Rivkin was charged with 68 counts of fraud after using millions of dollars worth of photographs to launder money. He had made over $78 million through fraudulent schemes involving his biodiesel production companies—which didn’t actually produce any biodiesel. Rivkin spent roughly $16 million dollars on 2,200 fine art photographs by artists like Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston. Works included Edward Weston’s Dunes, Oceano, a gelatin silver print that Rivkin purchased from Sotheby’s for $134,500 and another vintage gelatin silver contact print by Alfred Stieglitz, From the Shelton, West. Rivkin wired Camera Lucida, the seller of the photograph, $150,000 to purchase it.
http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/culture/art/214699-guide-to-laundering-money-art
Mr. Horowitz, whose work sometimes addresses electoral politics, said the idea of directing the protest and messages to Ms. Trump came because she has become known in the art world as a progressive figure and as someone who seems to care much more about culture than her father does. “I don’t think we have any real illusions that she’s going to become a champion for any of the things we care about, or try to stop the things we fear are going to happen,” Mr. Horowitz said. “But it’s a way to start something, a first action of what we hope is going to become a much bigger movement.”
Michael Shvo. ©Patrick McMullan. Photo by Jared Siskin/PMC.
Real estate developer and high-profile art collector Michael Shvo, and related shipping companies, were indicted by the New York district attorney Cyrus Vance yesterday, September 8, on charges of evading more than $1 million in sales and use tax on fine art, jewelry, and luxury sports cars. The indictment does not name specific artworks.
Shvo pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $500,000 bail.
Shvo is perhaps best known in art world circles as the collector who turned a Getty gas station on West 24th street in Chelsea into a temporary Francoix-Xavier and Claude Lalanne “grass station” complete with signature Lalanne sheep placed on “rolling” faux grass hills, back in 2013, before demolishing the station in order to build—yet another—high end, Highline Park condo development.
Forfeiture Of More Than $15M Worth Of Artwork Sought By U.S. Attorney’s Office
NEWARK, N.J. – The United States has filed a civil asset forfeiture Complaint seeking a collection of artwork containing more than 2,200 pieces and valued at more than $15 million, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced today.
The Complaint alleges that the artwork – bought with money from the sale of fraudulent credits for renewable fuel – was transported in interstate commerce knowing that it was the proceeds of fraud and was utilized in laundering the proceeds of fraud.
According to the Complaint:
Federal law requires gasoline and diesel refiners and importers to introduce renewable, non-fossil fuel into the national fuel mix. To ensure this, the Environmental Protection Agency created a system of credits known as “Renewable Identification Numbers” – or “RINs” – to track and boost renewable fuel production. The RINs can be obtained by:
· producing renewable fuel;
· importing renewable fuel produced by approved foreign producers;
· purchasing renewable fuel, with associated RINs, from approved domestic producers; and
· purchasing RINs without the underlying renewable fuel.
A market for RINs has developed, and thousands of RIN transactions are electronically recorded with EPA every week. Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of RINs are exchanged every year.
A company known as Green Diesel held itself out as operating a facility in Houston, Texas, that generated biomass-based diesel fuel. It did not, however, actually generate any such biodiesel. From November 2007 through at October 2011, Green Diesel sold RINs to companies such as Shell Oil, BP, CITGO, and Exxon that were invalid because they did not, in fact, represent the production of any biodiesel at all. Purchasers of invalid RINs from Green Diesel have reported losses exceeding $78 million.
The owner of Green Diesel, Philip J. Rivkin, used part of the proceeds of the fraud to purchase at least $18 million worth of artwork, chiefly photographs. On Jan. 30, 2012, Rivkin caused 396 packages of artwork to be transported to a warehouse on Frelinghuysen Avenue in Newark. The artwork was stored there until late June 2012, when it was moved to a warehouse in New York on its way to Spain. On July 12, 2012, it was seized for forfeiture pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk in Newark.
The seized artwork has been appraised by New York Fine Art Appraisers, which concluded that it has a total fair market value of $15,773,128. Among the works sought by the Complaint are:
a. Gelatin silver print titled “Distortion no. 6, Paris” by artist Andre Kertesz. The photograph was purchased by Rivkin from Philips De Prury & Company as part of a group of photographs. Rivkin paid $42,500 for the piece and wired $60,000 as payment for the group of photographs on Nov. 9, 2010.
b. Gelatin silver print titled “Dunes, Oceano” by artist Edward Weston. The photograph was purchased by Rivkin from Sotheby’s as part of a group of photographs. Rivkin paid $134,500 for the piece and wired $424,750 as payment for the group of photographs on Nov. 11, 2010.
“As alleged in the indictment, Michael Shvo went to great lengths to defraud New Yorkers out of more than a million dollars in tax revenue, said Vance in a statement. “This indictment puts other purchasers of fine art on notice: the purposeful evasion of New York State and City taxes is a tax crime, and those who scheme to avoid their obligations will be held criminally and civilly accountable.”
In addition to the criminal tax evasion charges, Vance also filed a related civil action to forfeit funds accumulated during the alleged scheme. Bloomberg reports that a temporary freeze has been placed on at least $1.5 million of Shvo’s assets.
As artnet News reported in early 2015, the Manhattan DA launched an investigation into art sales taxes and several Chelsea dealers told us they had received letters seeking information about their business records.
Jerry Boone, the New York state commissioner of taxation and finance, said the arrest of Shvo is “part of a continuous and concentrated effort involving our department,” along with the DA, and other local law enforcement agencies.
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