86 million missing dollars, a charming, handsome art dealer, forged documents and an escape to the South Seas: Inigo Philbrick's crime story, whose film rights could be a good investment, has come to an end for the time being.

The sentence of the judge in the federal court of Manhattan in the trial of the art dealer accused of serial fraud and now found guilty is seven years in prison.

The Philbrick case exemplifies the temptations and risks of the art market, which involves enormous amounts of money but, unlike other markets, is hardly regulated.

The thirty-four-year-old American knew how to take advantage of this and specialized in the speculative trade in art, in which works are bought on the secondary market and resold with the highest possible profit margins.

Philbrick began his career at the age of 23 as an intern at the prestigious London gallery White Cube.

Within a very short time he managed to make the leap to head of the secondary market business.

In 2013 he opened his own art shop in London.

A gallery in Miami was to be added.

Sales shot through the roof.

In hindsight, that's hardly surprising, because Philbrick also traded in paintings that he didn't even own or sold shares of a work of art to various parties, which together made up more than one hundred percent.

Using forged documents, he juggled works by well-known artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Christopher Wool and Wade Guyton between investors, letterbox companies and straw men abroad.

Collapse of a building of lies

Six years and 86 million dollars missing later, Philbrick's fabrication of lies collapsed spectacularly in the fall of 2019 when he sold a painting by Rudolf Stingel at a Christie's evening auction.

He had bought the picture on behalf of the German company Fine Art Partners for $7.1 million and lured it with a guarantee contract from Christie's for a resale price of over $9 million.

When the picture changed hands for $5.7 million, it was clear that the documents were forged.

Not only that: Prior to the auction, Philbrick had already sold the painting to another company.

The German company's lawsuit was followed by numerous revelations and lawsuits from Philbrick's fraud victims.

He was arrested there in June 2020 and extradited to the United States.

Philbrick used the lack of transparency in the art market "to defraud collectors, investors and lenders of more than $86 million," prosecutors said.

Inigo Philbrick may have discovered honesty for himself after almost 24 months in custody: when the district judge asked him in the courtroom about the motive for his actions, Philbrick replied: "The money, your honor".