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Perry Rubenstein, a gallerist who rose quickly within the New York artwork world of the Eighties, then fell into shame within the 2010s after a failed transition to Los Angeles ended together with his conviction on two counts of embezzlement, died on Thursday at his dwelling in Los Angeles. He was 68.
Sara Fitzmaurice, his former spouse, confirmed the dying however mentioned the trigger had not been decided.
Mr. Rubenstein was one among a number of outstanding younger gallery homeowners to emerge in Manhattan within the mid-Eighties, as a wave of Wall Road money poured by means of SoHo and Chelsea, swooping up the work of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner and Julian Schnabel.
A former Versace mannequin with an impeccable knack for the following massive factor in artwork, Mr. Rubenstein slot in with the “in” crowd; for a lot of his profession he labored as a non-public vendor for the very, very wealthy. He specialised in each rising stars and blue chips, brokering works by Victor Matthews alongside Warhols and Lichtensteins.
He opened a public gallery on West twenty third Road in Chelsea in 2004, then made waves seven years later when he introduced that he was transferring his operation to Los Angeles. He arrange store in a nascent arts district in Hollywood, opening his 9,500-square-foot gallery with a solo present by the photographer Helmut Newton.
However he couldn’t make it work. Money owed piled up, gross sales had been gradual, and in 2014 his gallery filed for chapter within the face of a number of lawsuits for breach of contract.
That wasn’t the worst of his issues. In 2012 he had offered a piece by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami for $630,000 on behalf of a Massachusetts-based collector, Michael Salke. Because the deal closed, Mr. Rubenstein tacked on an extra $20,000 to his fee price. Mr. Salke sued, and in the course of the discovery section discovered that the customer, the Eli and Edythe Broad Basis, had paid $825,000 for the work, with Mr. Rubenstein pocketing the distinction.
Mr. Salke and Mr. Rubenstein later settled the go well with.
Not lengthy afterward, Michael Ovitz, the previous president of the Walt Disney Firm, sued Mr. Rubenstein over his dealing with of two works by Richard Prince. Mr. Ovitz mentioned that Mr. Rubenstein had offered one among them with out his permission, at a worth under what he wished, and that Mr. Rubenstein had refused to show over the proceeds from the sale of the opposite work.
The truth is, Mr. Ovitz mentioned, Mr. Rubenstein had by no means offered the second work, “Untitled (de Kooning).”
The 2 males reached a settlement in March 2016: Mr. Rubenstein would return the second portray, and Mr. Ovitz wouldn’t press prices.
Mr. Rubenstein was subsequently stunned to be taught, 4 months later, that Mr. Ovitz and Mr. Salke had pressed prices anyway, and that there was a warrant out for his arrest on two prices of felony embezzlement and one depend of theft. Underneath a 2017 settlement, he pleaded no contest to the embezzlement prices and agreed to pay restitution to each Mr. Salke and Mr. Ovitz. He was additionally sentenced to 6 months in jail.
Perry Roy Rubenstein was born on Jan. 15, 1954, in Philadelphia. His father, Samuel Rubenstein, left his household when Perry was very younger, and he was raised by his stepfather, Edwin Virshup, who owned a distribution firm, and his mom, Lydia (Kogan) Virshup, a homemaker.
He attended Pennsylvania State College, the place he majored in historical past and graduated in 1975.
With no clear profession path in thoughts, Mr. Rubenstein took off for Europe. He landed in Milan, the place he quickly fell in with different younger folks working within the metropolis’s vogue trade.
At some point somebody got here by his resort in search of a match mannequin for a close-by studio. Curious, Mr. Rubenstein volunteered, and some hours later he was standing head to head with Gianni Versace, who was simply starting his ascent to the highest of the design world.
Mr. Rubenstein took to modeling, and he spent the following a number of years bouncing world wide on picture shoots. Alongside the way in which he began to purchase artwork, particularly from younger artists who had been simply then rising from Italy, like Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia and Enzo Cucchi, all of whom went on to main careers.
By the point he settled in New York within the early Eighties, Mr. Rubenstein had each an immensely invaluable artwork assortment and a protracted record of contacts within the artwork world. He lived within the West Chelsea constructing the place Mr. Schnabel had a brief studio.
“Our first assembly didn’t go properly,” he wrote in a 2022 Fb submit. “I used to be new to the mysteries of the modern artwork world and unwittingly insulted Julian by asking him how far the work had been alongside. He mentioned, ‘They’re completed.’ … And so had been we!”
It was a uncommon fake pas by Mr. Rubenstein, who discovered himself snug transferring between artists’ lofts and bankers’ penthouse suites, his fame rising as rapidly because the Eighties artwork market itself.
He married Ms. Fitzmaurice in 1996. They divorced in 2014. He’s survived by his brother, Irv; his sister, Beth Virshup; and his daughters, Raffaella and Scarlett Rubenstein.
Although Mr. Rubenstein had lengthy made West Chelsea his dwelling base — his dwelling and his workplace had been there — it wasn’t till 2004 that he joined the growth in gallery openings round him. He quickly had three areas, one among which he devoted to rising artists.
His transfer to Los Angeles got here as a shock to his colleagues, however he noticed it as his subsequent massive problem. The West Coast artwork scene was booming, and he believed he might replicate his success in New York in a much less crowded subject. He put every thing he had into the undertaking, and when it fell aside, he had nothing to fall again on.
After his launch from jail, Mr. Rubenstein labored as a guide to artwork collectors. He additionally wrote a memoir about his household, going again to their roots in Jap Europe, in addition to his early profession as a mannequin and artwork vendor. It has not but been printed.
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