In late 2024, we celebrated a major win in a complex, multilateral dispute over a Basquiat masterwork at the heart of the fraudulent schemes orchestrated by convicted art dealer Inigo Philbrick.  After our client authorized Philbrick to sell the painting, he secretly stole it and used it as collateral to obtain a personal loan from Athena Art Finance, which refused to return the artwork once the fraud was uncovered. 
 
A Federal Judge in mid-2025 upheld the summary judgment ruling, concluding that our client alone holds legal title to the masterpiece.  But Athena filed yet another challenge this past summer, this time asking the Court to reconsider its own ruling, and arguing that it should have been permitted to present two new additional arguments as to why it should be entitled to an interest in the work. 
 
Just this week, the Court sided again with our client, agreeing with our arguments that Athena failed to clearly raise its alternative theories earlier in the case, and therefore it lost its chance to pursue them at such a late stage of the dispute.  This decision reaffirms the simple principle we advanced on behalf of our client from the outset: a borrower cannot mortgage someone else’s property.  And we are pleased that after years of litigation, this important painting will now be headed back to our client.