Police Charge Australian Gallerist with Nine Counts of Theft and Seize 20 Works

After two years of legal battles between Australian art dealer Tove Langridge and several artists, Queensland Police charged the TW Fine Art owner with nine theft offenses on December 20, 2023. The police also seized 20 works of art from storage units leased by Langridge.

As first reported by the Art Newspaper, the criminal charges follow several artists’ claims that Langridge conducted transactions without their consent or payment. The artists alleged that he did not give them sales proceeds, that he has not returned their works, and that he withheld income from his art advisory, which leases paintings to businesses and provides prints to hotels.

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Alana Kushnir, a Melbourne-based curator, adviser, and art lawyer representing the artists, told the Art Newspaper that police have charged a gallery owner for “theft where an artwork has been sold on consignment and the sale proceeds have not been remitted to the artist. The repetitious nature of the conduct adds to the seriousness of it.”

TW Fine Art was launched by Langridge in 2014 as an “online art marketplace” selling limited-edition reproductions produced in collaboration with artists. Among the first slate of works available were pieces allegedly by Abstract Expressionist artist Michael Goldberg and his partner Lynn Umlauf.

Goldberg died in 2007, and Umlauf passed away in 2022.

On Langridge’s LinkedIn page, it says he was Assistant Director – Estate of Michael Goldberg until November 2012.

However, halley k harrisburg, director of New York’s Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, which manages Goldberg’s estate, told the Art Newspaper there were questions about the early activities of TW Fine Art. According to harrisburg, Rosenfeld and Manny Silverman Gallery, which represented the artist before it closed in 2015, “never authorized” any such prints.

According to the Art Newspaper report, Langridge used Instagram to recruit and expand his roster of artists, as well as sell works online.

If Langridge is convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison. Langridge did not reply to requests for comment from ARTnews.