Sotheby's Battles Art Dealer Over Keith Haring Winning Bid

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You can’t walk away from a winning bid.

That’s Sotheby’s message to a New York art collector who allegedly refused to honor his $6.5 million offer for an untitled 1982 Keith Haring painting, a record price for the beloved American pop artist.

The auction house sued Anatole Shagalov in August for $2.13 million -- the difference between his winning bid at the May 2017 auction and the price Sotheby’s got for the work after it was forced to resell it.

All sides agree that the large acrylic-on-vinyl painting, depicting Haring’s trademark "radiant baby" figure surrounded by stylized angels and barking dogs, attracted four bidders, with Shagalov coming out on top. What happened after that -- and before -- is being hotly debated in New York state court in Manhattan.

A hearing is set for Tuesday, with Sotheby’s claims about falsified evidence expected to take center stage.

Sotheby’s argues it’s a cut-and-dry case of a collector who overextended himself in the murkier end of the art-finance world. Shagalov, 49, contends Sotheby’s agreed before the auction to let him pay for the work in installments, and then demanded the money all at once. He also says Sotheby’s failed to make a "commercially reasonable" effort to get a higher price when it later sold the work for $4.4 million.

Sotheby’s attorney, New York litigator John Cahill, says Shagalov’s claim about an installment plan is hogwash.

"Sotheby’s occasionally gives installment payment plans but it does that in writing and it requires the installment payments to be made," Cahill said in a phone call. "There is nothing in writing and he never made any payments."

New York Art Dealer Duped Clients Out of Millions, U.S. Says

Shagalov’s attorney, Mathew Hoffman, said the dispute over installment payments isn’t the heart of Shagalov’s defense anyway. Instead, the lawyer said, the strongest defenses must be kept secret for now because they relate to documents filed under seal and can’t be explained or even summarized.

"There are all sorts of factors," Hoffman said in an interview. The payment plan "is a fairly minor point."

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