WARHOL’S SCHOOL TRUSTEES SUED FOR $35M

Graduate Arts School co-founded by Andy Warhol faces RICO-action lawsuit

NEW YORK, NY -- April 30, 2007 -- Several leading art patrons who also serve as trustees of the New York Academy of Art (NYAA) have been enjoined by their former comptroller.

Eileen Guggenheim, Christopher Forbes, and a plethora of leading New Yorkers and society page headliners including Russell Wilkinson, of the Colgate fortune, and the popular artist, Eric Fischl are among the board members of NYAA. A RICO-based lawsuit alleging systematic acts of fraud by the New York Academy of Art's board of trustees has been filed.  More than two decades ago, the late pop artist Andy Warhol helped to establish the NYAA as a graduate school for the figurative arts. 

The plaintiff, John R. Blumatte, is an accountant who adopted the alias Robert Angona after being released from prison. In a complaint filed April 12 (OFFICIAL DOCKET #07CV2944, FILED 4/12/07 WITH JUDGE RAKOFF, U.S. SOUTHERN DISTRICT COURT), Blumatte claims Stephen Farthing, the academy's executive director, hired him as controller and instructed him not to tell anyone about his background. In the course of his work, Blumatte says he discovered a variety of financial irregularities, including kickbacks to artists whose work was auctioned to raise money for the academy's endowment, and insurance claims fraudulently attributed to damage from the 9/11 attacks.

Blumatte also alleges that members of the board of trustees (whose ranks included Forbes and Guggenheim) used their association with the academy "so that they could fly across the Atlantic to entertain their friends at fancy restaurants in the name of fundraising," writing off the money they spent.

Blumatte claims the trustees elevated him position of CFO, but then fired him and had him arrested after he raised his concerns, and then conspired to blame him for all of the pre-existing financial irregularities. He's now seeking $35 million in damages.

This suit casts a shadow over NYAA’s festive Tribeca Ball, to be held May 10th at Manhattan’s Skylight.  The invitation for the swank event boasts Prince Charles as “royal patron” and dozens of other artists and leading New Yorkers as participants and supporters.

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Contact: Matt Rich, 212-404-4444