Phillips Has Now Sold $1.9 Million in Lisa Schiff Holdings — and More Works Are Coming
Phillips has already generated $1.9 million from the sale of art and related objects tied to disgraced advisor Lisa Schiff, with additional lots still scheduled to come to market. The auction house said 231 pieces from Schiff’s holdings have been sold so far, a total that lands close to the roughly $2 million presale estimate attached to the material when the liquidation began.
The sales stem from bankruptcy proceedings that began after trustees retained Phillips in September 2024 to dispose of about 220 works from Schiff’s collection of contemporary art, along with inventory from her defunct business, Schiff Fine Art. Schiff’s creditors include collectors Candace Carmel Barasch and Richard Grossman.
The most recent results came in an online auction that closed earlier this week. A 2022 painting by Corydon Cowansage sold for $7,095, within its $6,000 to $8,000 estimate, while a 1987 Richard Prince print on a T-shirt mounted on board brought $51,600, well above its $20,000 to $30,000 estimate.
The highest-priced work sold so far is Joel Meslier’s 2021 painting Untitled (Bananas), which brought $69,850 in Phillips’s “New Now” sale in February 2025. The liquidation has not been limited to paintings and prints. A chair by Fernando and Humberto Campana sold for $38,100 in December 2024, and three Hemmerle rings brought between $16,510 and $27,940 in a jewelry sale last year.
Phillips said it will continue selling material from Schiff’s holdings, though it did not say how many works remain. Next in line, in mid-July, are two works by Richard Prince, one by Chris Ofili, and one by Raymond Pettibon, with a combined estimate of $145,000 to $205,000.
Schiff’s case has shadowed the sales from the start. In October 2024, she pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to defrauding clients out of $6.5 million and was ordered, under a plea agreement, to forfeit about $6.4 million. She was sentenced in March 2025 to two and a half years in federal prison.
Phillips is not the only house handling Schiff-related material. Earlier this month, Millea Brothers Auctioneers in Boonton, New Jersey, sold 17 lower-value works in a two-day online sale for $20,325 total. Five did not sell, and the top result was a 2010 Damien Loeb painting that reached $9,000 against a $1,500 to $2,500 estimate. The broader liquidation suggests how bankruptcy sales can move quickly from scandal to market test, with prices revealing which names still carry weight.
