In search of Inigo Philbrick, the disappearing art dealer

Shortly after Philbrick’s disappearance, Schachter – who says he lost $1.7m to Philbrick over a different Stingel painting – posted a column on Artnet claiming Philbrick was in Australia. According to Schachter’s story, an anonymous Instagram account, @steve_irwin_pets, had sent him a series of messages defending Philbrick. “If he’s smart enough to do it in the first place he’s smart enough to make good on it,” @steve_irwin_pets wrote. Eventually, however, the author slipped into the first person. “It’s no big deal, I did nothing wrong and it will all be forgotten soon.”

When I first tried to talk to Schachter about his relationship with Philbrick, he demurred – he was working on a screenplay, he said, and later a tell-all exposé for New York magazine. As the weeks went on, more anonymous accounts popped up, which Schachter would sometimes insinuate were Philbrick. One, @ibnabattuta1, claimed to be staying at a luxury hotel in Japan, according to messages that Schachter posted with the tag #theadventuresofInigoPhilbrick.

Then, one day, one of the anonymous accounts, @hehredeagehe, messaged me. “Don’t Believe Kenny Schachter He Is Just Mad He Got Finnesses By A Guy Younger And Smarter Than He Is,” the messages began. The mystery person, who claimed not to be Philbrick but an interested party living in Paris, seemed to have intimate awareness of the case. The person referred to Gagosian as “Larry”, showed a remarkable awareness of the art market and when I asked them about “Kris” – an as-yet unidentified art collector alluded to in one of the court cases, they seemed to panic. “We Cant Talk About That,” they wrote. “That Really Would Fuck Shit Up And I Don’t Wantt No Trouble.”

For a few days, the account alternated between trying to talk me out of writing the story and digging around for what I knew – about Philbrick, his relationship, his alleged drug use. One major element still puzzled me: why did Philbrick run?

“Philbrick Is Scared,” the mystery person wrote. “Philbrick Is Obviously Connected To Saudis they The Most Desperate To Get Big Pieces Right Away.” (Another well-connected London dealer told me, when I asked, that Philbrick had “fucked the wrong people”.)

“Be Careful,” the strange account said. “These People Place Nice But When It Comes To The $ Things Get Dark Quick.”

After Philbrick disappeared, the art world, already prone to gossip, swirled with wild rumours – that he’d upset Russian oligarchs or had mafia ties. But the rumours were dominated by Saudi Arabia. The Saudi connection centres around a work by Kusama, “All The Eternal Love I Have For The Pumpkins”. The piece is a mirrored room filled with ghostly, illuminated sculptures of the fruit, which are a recurring theme in Kusama’s work. According to Tümpel and Würtenberger, Philbrick purchased the Kusama on FAP’s behalf in 2017. At the time of Philbrick’s disappearance, the room was on loan to the Institute Of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Miami. However, in an unusual arrangement, Philbrick had agreed to host the display himself, at his Miami gallery. It proved a sensation. Visitors queued around the block to pay $5 to step inside and take photos. (Kusama has produced a series of such pieces, which she calls “Infinity Mirrored Rooms” and have become hugely popular settings for Instagram selfies.)