All posts tagged: Dealer

The mystery of the car dealer found in concrete under floorboards of Bristol home

The mystery of the car dealer found in concrete under floorboards of Bristol home

Published by Sam Flores

The unsolved murder of Wayne Lomas, who was found in a concrete slab under the floorboards of a living room, is as horrifying as it is puzzling. No-one has been brought to justice for the killing despite it being nearly 40 years since he went missing from his house in South Bristol. Lomas disappeared from his three-bedroom semi-detached house in unusual circumstances on August 30, 1988. Relatives got into his house via an open back window and found the tumble-drier still switched on, his alarm was switched off and his two King Charles Spaniels, Bengy and Roly, in the back garden without food or drink. Lomas, who was a car dealer, had a criminal record going back years and police had linked him to drug dealing, loan sharking and protection rackets. His sudden disappearance led to a police investigation with officers alleging he had been abducted and suspecting he had been murdered by gangland rivals. Following an anonymous call to police five years later, officers swarmed a property in Southville and would find his human …

Can an Artist Defeat a Dealer Treating Her Like a Pariah?

Can an Artist Defeat a Dealer Treating Her Like a Pariah?

Published by José Betancourt

With a world in crisis and an art market spinning out of control, ace art-world consultants Chen & Lampert deliver hard truths in response to questions sent by Art in America readers from far and wide. I fired my gallery of 25 years after they refused to release me from a contract that forbade me from selling my work anywhere else in the United States for two years. I was their top-selling artist for a while and tried negotiating, even offering a cut of sales, but they still refused. Leaving them was incredibly hard and felt like committing career suicide; but since then I’ve been doing great and am free to sell my work anywhere! But alas, there’s a new problem. I discovered that they damaged over $50,000 worth of my work and lied to the insurance company to avoid paying the claim. The gallery owner who made millions in sales off me is now acting like I am a pariah. He has also brought in other artists to copy my work. Does that seem normal, and am I …

The Vintage Dealer Behind Austin Butler’s Archival Workwear

The Vintage Dealer Behind Austin Butler’s Archival Workwear

Published by Jenni Sidey

“I got hooked,” he says. “Then I just started sourcing heavier, traveling to stores, picking at abandoned houses.” Yes, abandoned houses. He confirms: “It’s definitely scary.” During the pandemic, Emelianov and his fiancée would take spontaneous road trips through small towns and snoop around. “Some of the places in the desert just had all these abandoned houses that were just filled with crap that people left behind—clothing is one of the things that people don’t really take with them,” he says. Sometimes they found full floors filled with ’70s-era T-shirts and whiskered, match-stricken Levi’s. One time, he drove through Colorado and stopped by a “mom-and-pop antique mall” where he was approached by an older woman. “She was like, ‘I love your outfit. Do you buy vintage?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I do.’ And she’s like, ‘Well, my husband just passed away. He was a firefighter his whole life, and he has a ton of stuff in the attic I can’t really get to. Could you possibly help me?’” Emelianov recounts. “I’m like, ‘Holy shit, this …

Paris Dealer Kamel Mennour Buys Galerie Malingue

Paris Dealer Kamel Mennour Buys Galerie Malingue

Published by José Betancourt

The baton is being passed from an elder generation of French art dealer to a younger one, with the purchase of Galerie Malingue by dealer Kamel Mennour, who will take over Malingue’s 4,300-square-foot showroom at 26 Avenue Matignon in Paris’s Matignon district. “Located in a space with a long history in modern art, formerly Galerie Malingue, this new venue reflects Mennour’s continued growth while setting out a clear direction: the showcasing of significant works by modern, post-war and contemporary artists from private collections,” said the gallery in an emailed announcement.  Related Articles “This curatorial programme complements the gallery’s primary market activity and its longstanding work with artist estates over the past 25 years,” the statement continued. “It also reinforces Mennour’s increased focus on historical works over recent years, including the exhibition of masterpieces by artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell, Henri Matisse, Tsuguharu Foujita and Yayoi Kusama.” Daniel Malingue founded his gallery, focused on Impressionism, Surrealism, and modern and postwar art, more than five decades ago. The gallery’s website lists …

Drug dealer admits killing vulnerable former chef who slept beside dogs | UK News

Drug dealer admits killing vulnerable former chef who slept beside dogs | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

A drug dealer has admitted beating a vulnerable former chef to death after allegedly forcing him to sleep beside dogs. The body of Dimitrios Tsavdaris, 55, was found in the foetal position inside a “cuckoo” flat in Hackney, north London, after weeks of violent attacks, the Old Bailey was previously told. He had been taken there from the home of Bamidele Fawehinmi in Wickford, Essex, where he allegedly slept on a mattress in a garage beside American pitbull cross-breed dogs. The victim was a frail “vulnerable person”, weighing just over eight stone, who may have been dead or dying for several days before his body was discovered on 29 January 2024, jurors heard. He had sustained multiple fractures to his ribs, face and breastbone, as well as internal injuries and old and new bleeding on the brain. On Thursday, partway through his retrial at the Old Bailey, Fawehinmi, 33, from Haringey, north London, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm. He was remanded into custody to be sentenced on 8 May. Read more …

San Francisco Art Dealer Dies at 92

San Francisco Art Dealer Dies at 92

Published by José Betancourt

Rena Bransten, an art dealer whose gallery was a fixture of the San Francisco art scene for over 50 years, died Wednesday at the age of 92. Bransten died following a fall after a recent heart attack, her daughter, Trish, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Bransten’s eponymous gallery was founded in 1975 as the successor gallery to Quay Ceramics, which Bransten and Ruth Braunstein launched the year prior. Originally located in a 3,400-square-foot space in Union Square, the gallery became known for elevating artists from California, with a particular emphasis on women artists and artists of color. Related Articles Among the most high-profile artists represented by Bransten over the years include filmmaker John Waters, photographer Dawoud Bey, conceptual artist Fred Wilson, poet and artist Lawrence Ferlinghetti, painter Hung Liu, and multidiscplinary artist Lava Thomas. The gallery was forced out of its long-time space in 2015, when a tech company offered triple the rent, according to San Francisco Standard. It moved first to Market Street before settling in the Dogpatch in 2016, along with many other …

Columbia dealer gets 15 years after casino fentanyl bust and charges

Columbia dealer gets 15 years after casino fentanyl bust and charges

Published by skeptic

A Columbia, Missouri, man who drew attention during a tense fentanyl bust at an Oklahoma casino is now headed to federal prison for 15 years. Walter Antwine Moore, 44, was sentenced Wednesday (February 25) to 180 months behind bars by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays. Moore had already admitted guilt to several federal crimes, including possessing methamphetamine and fentanyl with the intent to distribute and carrying a firearm while dealing drugs. Walter Antwine Moore (Columbia) sentenced to 15 Years for 2,300 fentanyl pills in KC, meth & firearm in St. Joseph, and 913 fentanyl pills in Quapaw, Oklahoma https://t.co/72Ds94HSaK @DEAHQ @ATFKansasCity — U.S. Attorney WDMO (@USAO_WDMO) February 25, 2026 What started as a gambling trip in December 2022 ended up unraveling a much larger case. Columbia dealer faces trouble at blackjack table ahead of casino fentanyl raid Federal prosecutors say Moore was playing blackjack at a casino in Quapaw, Oklahoma, when he lost more than $1,000. According to court records, he became angry with the dealer, began cursing and made vague threats. Witnesses said he …

‘El Mencho’: From California drug dealer to cartel kingpin

‘El Mencho’: From California drug dealer to cartel kingpin

Published by Sam Flores

Long before he had a $15-million bounty on his head as the leader of Mexico’s ruthless Jalisco New Generation cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes was a scruffy-haired kid trying to eke out a living on the streets of San Francisco. He crossed the border illegally sometime before he turned 20, making the migrant’s journey north from the avocado and lime orchards that surround his family’s small town in the state of Michoacán. He was picked up first on meth charges on May 14, 1986, according to news reports and a San Francisco police booking photo, which shows him in a blue hoodie scowling into the camera. He was arrested twice more, finally for selling $9,500 worth of heroin to two undercover officers at a bar in 1992. He went to prison, got deported and, despite his record, became a local police officer back home. So began the criminal career of one of the most infamous figures in the world of international drug trafficking. It ended in spectacular and violent fashion Sunday, with Mexican authorities announcing …

Epstein Files Show Leon Black’s Links to Indicted Antiquities Dealer

Epstein Files Show Leon Black’s Links to Indicted Antiquities Dealer

Published by Jenni Sidey

A one-page document contained in the Department of Justice’s release of files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein connects billionaire art collector Leon Black with potentially looted Cambodian art and artifacts, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. Formerly CEO of Apollo Global Management, Black is known to have paid Epstein for financial advice after his criminal offenses were public knowledge. He was formerly chair of the Museum of Modern Art’s board and remains a trustee there. Related Articles The inventory, dating to 2014, shows that Black held artworks from Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The spreadsheet is titled “Leon Black/ Narrows South East Asian Art Inventory,” with Narrows referring to an investment vehicle associated with Black. It itemizes a dozen bronze and stone sculptures, including depictions of Hindu god Vishnu and Maitreya, whom Buddhists revere. The total estimated market value of the works is $27.7 million, and purchase prices range as high as $7 million for a rendition of the god Shiva. These prices, including eight others in excess of $1 million, “would put several of the works …

Drug dealer inspired by Home Alone rigged house with booby-traps | UK News

Drug dealer inspired by Home Alone rigged house with booby-traps | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

A drug dealer who rigged his house with booby-traps after being inspired by the Christmas classic Home Alone has been jailed for seven years. Ian Claughton used tripwires and home-made pipe bombs to protect his drugs business from would-be intruders. Around 100 homes in Grimethorpe, a former pit village in South Yorkshire, had to be evacuated in May 2024 as police searched three neighbouring houses connected to Claughton and his ex-wife. Image: Pic: Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit/PA They found a series of traps as well as a home-made flamethrower, large quantities of cannabis, amphetamines and cash. Mr Claughton was jailed for seven years at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday by Judge Graham Reeds, who said he was “a drug dealer who used these weapons to protect [his] cannabis growing operation”. His ex-wife, Lesley Claughton, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years. Opening the trial to jurors last October, prosecutor Helen Chapman said: “If you are sitting there thinking that this sounds a little like the film Home Alone, …