Dealer Accused of Selling Bogus Chagall

MINEOLA, N.Y. (CN) - One art dealer says another dealer sold him a bogus Marc Chagall watercolor for $165,000. James Healy Fine Art says it unwittingly sold the piece to another dealer, then refunded the money when the fraud was exposed. Healy demands $165,000 from Ronnie Meyerson Inc. in Nassau County Court.

Healy claims that after buying the "Ane et le Clown" from Meyerson, the Comité Marc Chagall of Paris, "the pre-eminent authority on Chagall's work," determined that the work was not authentic.

When he asked for his money back, Healy says, "she refused and moved Meyerson Inc.'s offices with no forwarding address."

Healy claims that Meyerson falsely described the painting as a "private Chagall gouache," created around 1960, and sent him a bogus certificate of authenticity from the Comité Chagall. Healy says he paid $165,000 for the work, which Meyerson's employee Henry "Hank" Meyerson sent to him without the certificate of authenticity.

Healy says that when the Comité Chagall's vice president saw photographs of the watercolor, he determined that it and the certificate were phony.

Healy demands $207,652 plus costs. He is represented by Peter L. Reilly of Manhattan.

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