Hong Kong art dealer vindicated after guilty plea to theft by German socialite over US$1.4 million he paid her for a Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture
- Mathieu Ticolat, who has bought and sold modern and contemporary art for 20 years, paid Angela Gulbenkian for a Yayoi Kusama sculpture that never arrived
- ‘This industry is not regulated. There are many fraudsters out there,’ says Ticolat, who does not know if he will get his money back, but has learned his lesson
A Hong Kong art dealer said on Thursday he was pleased to have helped smash a multimillion-dollar racket, and to have been given justice by a London court, four years after he paid £1.1 million (US$1.4 million) for a Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture that he never received.
Angela Gulbenkian, a German art adviser who married into a prominent family and is known for her lavish lifestyle, pleaded guilty on July 2 to the theft of the sum Mathieu Ticolat had paid to her London account for the large, bright-yellow sculpture in the shape of a pumpkin covered in the Japanese artist’s signature black dots.
Gulbenkian was arrested in Lisbon, Portugal, in June 2020 and extradited to the UK. She will be sentenced on July 28.
“I still don’t know whether I will get the money back,” said Ticolat, who has bought and sold modern and contemporary art for 20 years. “There are many fraudsters out there.
“This industry is not regulated. You don’t have to have a certificate to be an art dealer. Some of these professional scammers do get caught but the damage they inflict is tremendous.”