Christmas season is upon us, so it’s time to decide who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. The year 2014 was quite the year for art thieves, provocative artists, art flippers, and shady dealers. See who made the art world’s naughty list here:
1. Helly Nahmad
The playboy art dealer was recently released from prison for running an illegal high-stakes gambling ring from his New York apartment in Trump Tower.
2. James Meyer
Jasper Johns’s former assistant of 27 years pleaded guilty in stealing over 22 artworks from the artist’s studio and netting $6.5 million from the stolen works.
3. Helge Achenbach
The art dealer was accused of defrauding the late billionaire and Aldi supermarket heir Berthold Albrecht on 23 separate counts, resulting in damages totaling approximately €23 million.
4. Guy Wildenstein
The French art dealer Wildenstein was caught up in a €250 million tax evasion case.
5. Aviva Drescher
The Real Housewives star was not only fired from the TV show for throwing her prosthetic leg at a fellow co-star, but she was also embroiled in a lawsuit with an artist wh0 claimed she held his work hostage, demanding commission for the sale of his work to her friend.
6. Megumi Igarashi
The artist was arrested not once, but twice, for her vaginal sculptures that double as kayaks.
7. Leigh Morse
The convicted art dealer has paid only $60,000 (or 3.5 percent) of her $1.7 million restitution fee.
8. Paul McCarthy
The LA–based contemporary artist was beaten up when installing his giant “tree”—or what others describe as a “butt plug”—during Paris’s FIAC. Although this artist was not at fault, and never confirmed the sculpture was indeed a sex toy, McCarthy definitely makes the “naughty” list for his tongue-in-cheek provocation.
9. Kalan Sherrard
Kalan Sherrard and his artistic partner Maria Valenzuela were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace and resisting an officer without violence. Sherrard was arrested when he reached into his pants and whipped out a prosthetic penis. The duo are part of The GroupSelf Collective.
10. Joe Magnano
The Prada Marfa installation by Elmgreen & Dragset has had an eventful year. The sculpture was almost torn down and vandalized twice, once very badly by artist Joe Magnano, who calls himself 927 1977. He pleaded guilty to the vandalism, in which he spray-painted and covered the entire installation with TOMS flags. Magnano pleaded guilty and had to pay $10,700 for its restoration and a $1,000 fine. Not cool, Magnano, not cool.
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