A Michigan art dealer accused of defrauding seniors out of $1.6 million under a photo consignment scheme was sentenced on Wednesday, September 11, to five years and three months in prison, the US Attorney’s Office in Detroit said.
Former art dealer Wendy Halsted Beard, 59, allegedly used her Birmingham art gallery to sell consigned photography without giving the original owners a share of the profits, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said. As well as cheating customers out of sales proceeds, Halstead also allegedly failed to deliver the works to the new owners after receiving payments.
Beard pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud in July 2023. Nearly two years after her arrest in October 2022, a judge sentenced Beard to five of the 20 years in prison maximum prison sentence that fraud entails. The judge also ordered Beard to pay more than $2 million in restitution.
Investigators discovered 43 victims and more than 393 fine art photographs involved in the scheme, but were only able to find fewer than. 150 works, according to a report dated September 5 government condemnation memorandum obtained by the Detroit News.
An investigation into Beard by multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI Art Theft Unit, found that her crimes typically targeted the elderly and began as early as 2017. according to a criminal complaint from 2022.
Beard allegedly used the positive reputation of her gallery, which her father founded in 1969, to gain the victim’s trust to enter into a consignment contract, which she then violated to profit from the fraudulent sale.
One of the artworks caught up in the scheme was American landscape photographer Ansel Adams’ ‘The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park’ (1942), which was consigned to Beard in 2018. by an 82-year-old collector, according to court documents.
The alleged victim gave Beard $900,000 worth of art photography to sell on consignment, including the original Ansel Adams photo. Beard would receive 5% of the $625,000 retail value. Instead, she sold the work to a gallery in Wyoming for $440,000 and pocketed the money.
When the unwitting victim asked for their work back, Beard falsely responded that she had been “placed on the transplant list” and was unconscious while in the hospital due to lung problems. Beard even created fake email accounts to support claims she had undergone a double lung transplant, the indictment said.
“Wendy has had her double lung transplant and it’s been a little tricky, but we’re hoping they get the ventilation out,” reads an email sent to the 82-year-old collector by someone claiming to be Beard’s assistant.
The FBI said Beard was not listed on the United Network for Organ Sharing.
In another case of fraud, Beard allegedly returned several false or forged copies of other Ansel Adams photographs, including “Tenaya Creek, Dogwood, Rain, Yosemite National Park, California” (ca. 1948), to their original owners when they asked for the photos asked. back.
“Beard’s continued deception was at a level we rarely see, even in fraud cases, repeatedly lying to her clients in an attempt to conceal her scheme,” U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said in a statement after the sentencing. Ison’s office compared Beard’s behavior to an example of financial abuse of the elderly.
