Art dealer Inigo Philbrick ‘duped buyer of £10m Basquiat painting’

An art dealer has had assets worth millions of pounds frozen by a court following allegations that he defrauded an investor by inflating the price of a painting by £4.6 million.

Inigo Philbrick, 32, is accused of misleading Satfinance Investment into paying £9.5 million towards the acquisition of Humidity, a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, on the understanding that the purchase price was £14.3 million.

In a filing last month at the High Court, Satfinance alleged that the painting was actually bought for £9.7 million. “Accordingly, the claimant’s contribution to the purchase price of the painting was not circa 66 per cent as Mr Philbrick represented and as the claimant believed at the time, but over 97 per cent,” Satfinance’s filing said.

Mr Philbrick,