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Brash art frauds
plundered pension funds
to pay legal fees

By Suzanne Tswei
Star-Bulletin

It was to be a gala event with a champagne reception at the posh Tradewinds Ballroom at the Manadalay Bay hotel-casino in Las Vegas. Tickets were priced at $100 apiece to the fund-raiser featuring 70 years worth of actor Anthony Quinn's artworks.

The celebrated actor was to appear to sign autographs, pose for photos and dine with art lovers.

But the big October to-do was canceled after organizers learned that the two men who proposed the art sale had been convicted in Hawaii of art fraud -- selling copies of artworks as originals.

"Boy, you can say we learned a lesson," said Donald Kemp, president of the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center, a sponsor of the fund-raiser.

Organizers decided to call off the art sale after a barrage of stories appeared in Las Vegas newspapers about the art fraud convictions of two executives who operated a chain of galleries in Hawaii.

William Mett, president of Center Art Galleries-Hawaii, and Marvin Wiseman, the galleries' vice president, were convicted in 1990 of various fraud charges for selling poster-quality reproductions as original artworks. Federal prosecutors accused the two of selling copies at inflated prices by claiming that they were original prints by well known artists such as Salvador Dali. They were sentenced to jail terms that lasted about three years and fined more than $2 million.

Guilty of embezzling

Yesterday, Mett and Wiseman also were found guilty in Honolulu of siphoning funds in 1990 and 1991 from Center Art's pension plans. Visiting Judge Edward Rafeedie from California said the two used the pension funds as "their own piggy bank" and diverted about $1.6 million for their own substantial salaries, legal fees and Center Art's operating expenses while the galleries were failing.

The two executives had been convicted of the same embezzlement charges at a jury trial in 1997. They appealed, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a retrial, which resulted in yesterday's guilty verdicts.

Center Art stopped operating in 1995 and afterward the pension plans went broke.

But Kemp and other sponsors of the Las Vegas art sale didn't know any of this when they agreed to the two former art gallery executives' plan to sell Quinn's artwork at last year's benefit.

"We had no idea who these people were. We didn't know their history. If we had known, I think we would not have gone ahead with it," he said.

Kemp said he does not doubt the artworks to be sold would have been original paintings and sculptures by Quinn. But "a lot of negative publicity" in the local news caused the sponsors to call an emergency meeting and cancel the sale.

"It was a tempest-in-a-teapot kind of thing. We were disappointed but we just decided not to be associated with something like this," Kemp said.

The fund-raiser sponsors, including two other nonprofit charities, first met the two men through Audrey Roberts, a writer and producer of television art programs, Kemp said. "She brought them to our house to talk to us about the sale. It sounded like it was going to be something worthwhile," he said.

After 6,000 tickets were printed and countless hours of preparation by volunteers, Kemp began to learn of the two men's past when a Las Vegas reporter called to ask questions. A number of stories in the local newspapers followed, leading to the cancelation.

When he first learned of the fraud convictions, he contacted Quinn the same day and the celebrated actor vouched for Mett and Wiseman, Kemp said.

"Mr. Quinn said we had no worries. He said he knew the people for a long time and they had sold his art for a long time. We decided to go ahead with the sale anyway based on Mr. Quinn's personal assurance.

"We thought it would OK because it was going to involve only Mr. Quinn's art. He was going to come personally to sell his art. We were sure there would be no fraud involved," Kemp said.

Reached by telephone yesterday, Kemp said he was still certain that the sale, had it gone on, would not have involved sale of fraudulent artworks. "That wasn't the problem. We just thought there had been a lot of negative publicity, and we didn't want to be involved with it anymore."

The sponsors had to refund the tickets and shoulder the costs for the printing of the four-color invitations, he said. The Las Vegas Performing Arts Center had hoped to raise $30,000 to $40,000 after expenses, but instead was out of $6,000 to $7,000 in expenses.

Mett and Wiseman remain free on bail after yesterday's convictions. Their attorneys said they will appeal. Sentencing is scheduled for June 26.