Eric Ian Spoutz

Eric Ian Spoutz (born August 3, 1983) is an American art dealer,[1][2] art historian[3] and museum curator.[1][2] In 2003, he founded the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in the Fisher Building in Detroit, Michigan,[1][2] subsequently opening Gallery 928 at the Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village in Cape Coral, Florida[4] in addition to galleries in Palm Beach, Florida and Los Angeles, California.[5]

Eric Ian Spoutz
Eric Spoutz lecturing at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland in 2013.
Born
Eric Ian Spoutz

(1983-08-03) 3 August 1983
Mount Clemens, Michigan
NationalityAmerican
EducationCardinal Mooney Catholic College Preparatory School in Marine City, Michigan
OccupationArt Dealer
RelativesIan Hornak (uncle), Julius Rosenthal Wolf (uncle).

Early Life, Family, Education

Spoutz was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan on August 3, 1983 to Carl Spoutz, a real estate developer and Rosemary Hornak, an artist.[6] Eric Ian Spoutz's maternal uncle and namesake [7] was the founding Hyperrealist and Photorealist artist, Ian Hornak.[1][2] Ian Hornak's life partner was Julius Rosenthal Wolf,[8][9] who was a prominent American casting director, producer, theatrical agent,[9] art collector, art dealer, and the vice president of General Amusement Corporation, then the second largest talent management agency in the world.[10][11] During the 1950s and 1960s, Wolf had been the assistant director of Edith Halpert's Downtown Gallery in New York City where he became a champion of American Modernism in the visual arts.

Spoutz attended Cardinal Mooney Catholic College Preparatory School in Marine City, Michigan where he graduated high school in 2001.[1][2]

Spoutz's parents divorced in 1993 when he was 9 years old. He was raised by his mother, his father's parents and his uncle, Ian Hornak. During the school year he lived in Mount Clemens, Michigan and many summers, and holidays he spent with Ian Hornak at his home and studio in East Hampton, New York and in New York City.[2]

Through his early exposure to the art world in New York, Spoutz took an interest in art and became his uncle's studio manager in East Hampton at age 16.[2] Elmer Spoutz, Eric Spoutz’s paternal grandfather who was a real estate developer and businessman, died when Eric Spoutz was 18 in 2002 and he became the trustee of his grandfather’s estate.[2] Later in 2002 when Spoutz was 19, his uncle Ian Hornak died and Spoutz became the executor of his estate.[2]

Career

In 2003, Spoutz opened the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in the Fisher Building in Detroit, Michigan which specialized in photorealist and hyperrealist artwork.[1][2] He curated, "Lowell Nesbitt: A Retrospective" there in 2004, which was the largest display of the artist's artwork since the artist's death in 1993.[12] Later Spoutz moved to Palm Beach, Florida where he lived in a beachfront penthouse until moving back to Michigan in 2008.

Between 2007-2017 Spoutz placed artwork by many artists into the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art, the Smithsonian Libraries, the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, the Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections Division, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the National Hellenic Museum, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, the Florida State Capitol, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Dartmouth College's Rauner Special Collections Library, the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, The George Washington University Art Galleries, The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, the Forest Lawn Museum, the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, the Flint Institute of Arts, the Boston Children's Hospital, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Detroit Historical Museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.[13][1][2] Spoutz also curated traveling museum exhibitions throughout the United States including an exhibition at Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C. that was on display during Barack Obama's 2013 Presidential Inauguration sponsored by Ben Bernanke,[1][2][3] the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts,[14] the Kinsey Institute, [15] and the Anton Art Center. [16]

During the City of Detroit bankruptcy, Spoutz was quoted as an art expert in The Detroit News, valuing the Detroit Institute of Arts collection[17] and public art in the City of Detroit including Marshall Fredericks sculpture, Spirit of Detroit, and the Robert Graham (sculptor) sculpture, Monument to Joe Louis.[18]

Spoutz opened Gallery 928 at The Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village in Cape Coral, Florida where he exhibited the artwork of contemporary artists and masterworks by Andy Warhol, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso and others, at one time reportedly having 20 million dollars with of artwork on display.[4][19] The gallery closed in 2014 and Spoutz moved to Los Angeles, California where he opened an online dealership for authentic masterworks.[6]

He also volunteered as a curator for The Heidelberg Project in Detroit, Michigan, The Connecticut Cancer Foundation in Old Saybrook, Connecticut and the estate of Jack Mitchell (photographer).[2]

Personal

Spoutz married Natasha Gavroski in Beverly Hills, California in 2012; they divorced in April 2018.[20][21][1][2]

On February 3, 2016 Eric Spoutz was arrested at his penthouse in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California based upon a 26 page criminal complaint[22] issued by the office of United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara.[23][24][25][26][27][28] On June 3, 2016 Spoutz pled guilty in the case of US v. Spoutz to one count of wire fraud related to the sale of falsely attributed artwork accompanied by forged provenance documents.[13] The government charged Spoutz with marketing and selling the fraudulent artwork through online auction sites and auction houses. The criminal case did not relate to Spoutz's legitimate art galleries that he owned, the artwork that he put into museum collections or the artwork by his uncle, Ian Hornak.[5] Dozens of character letters from Spoutz's friends, family, colleagues and clients written on his behalf begging for leniency were presented to the court including letters from former New York Yankees, Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians baseball player, John Ellis, American lyrical abstraction co-founder Ronnie Landfield, New York artist, Scott Kahn and the executive director of The Heidelberg Project.[21] On February 16, 2017 Spoutz was sentenced by the Honorable Lewis A. Kaplan in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to 41 months in federal prison at Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown and ordered to forfeit the $1.45 million he made from the scheme and pay $154,100 in restitution.[13][29][30][31][32]

References
  1. Tom Watts, "Harrison Township art dealer is quick study," Macomb Daily, Feb. 15, 2012
  2. Jameson Cook, "Dual depictions presented of a prominent art dealer gone bad," Macomb Daily, Feb. 14, 2017
  3. Stephen Bennett Phillips, "Ian Hornak Transparent Barricades," exhibition catalogue, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Fine Art Program, Washington D.C., 2012
  4. Charles Runnells, "Gallery 928 brings Picasso, Warhol and other art icons to Cape Coral," The News Press, Feb. 7, 2014
  5. US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Government Sentencing Materials, Feb. 6, 2017
  6. "Forging Papers to Sell Fake Art," Federal Bureau of Investigation (press release), April 6, 2017
  7. Department of Justice, "JUSTICE, U.S DEPARTMENT OF. FBI STORY: Leadership, Integrity, Agility, Integration. S.l.: W W NORTON, 2019.
  8. Patsy Southgate, "Ian Hornak: Creating An Art Apart," East Hampton Star, Nov. 20, 1997
  9. "Jay Wolf, 47, Producer, Casting Director and Agent," New York Times, June 14, 1976
  10. "Papers of Jay Wolf, Circa 1900 - 2009," Dartmouth College Rauner Special Collections Library
  11. "Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969," Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art
  12. ""Lowell Nesbitt: A Comprehensive Retrospective Exhibit Opens at the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in Detroit, Michigan," PRWeb.com, August 22, 2003
  13. Reuters, "Michigan Art Dealer Gets Three Years in Prison for Selling Fake Paintings," NBC News, Feb. 16, 2017
  14. Rebecca Massie-Lane, "Three exhibitions; one day," The Hearald-Mail, Sept. 6, 2013
  15. Marci Creps, "On Exhibit: Jan 19, 2014" Hoosier Times, Jan. 19, 2014
  16. Maryanne MacLeod, "Art Center showcases revolutionary exhibit: Nationally celebrated Ian Hornak retrospective," Macomb Daily, Jun. 26, 2014
  17. "Christies lists alternatives to selling art," The Detroit News, Dec. 5, 2013
  18. "Could other assets be sold?," The Detroit News, Oct. 24, 2013
  19. Brittany Weiner, "$20 million art exhibit on display in Cape Coral," NBC2, July 18, 2014
  20. US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Defendant Sentencing Materials, Feb. 2, 2017
  21. US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Defendant Sentencing Materials (Character Letters), Feb. 2, 2017
  22. U.S. v. Spoutz Complaint - US Department of Justice, Jan. 16, 2016
  23. "Michigan Art Dealer Arrested And Charged With Fraud For Selling Dozens Of Forged Artworks Over Five Years," Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, Feb. 3, 2016
  24. "Michigan Art Dealer Sentenced To More Than 3 Years In Prison For Defrauding Collectors Of $1.45 Million Through Sale Of Forged Artworks," Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, Feb. 16, 2017
  25. Alex Johnson, "Art Dealer Eric Spoutz Charged With Selling Dozens of Fakes of American Masters," NBC News, Feb. 3, 2016
  26. Meg Wagner, "Michigan art dealer arrested for selling fake paintings by American masters with forged letters of authenticity," New York Daily News, Feb. 4, 2016
  27. Nate Raymond, "Michigan art dealer arrested by FBI for selling forgeries," Reuters, Feb. 3, 2016
  28. Lia Eustachewich, "Art dealer con man allegedly sold dozens of forged pieces over 15 years," New York Post, Feb. 4, 2016
  29. "Michigan art dealer gets more than 3 years in prison for fraud," The Detroit Free Press, Feb. 16, 2017
  30. Nate Raymond, "Michigan art dealer gets 3-plus years in prison for forgeries," Reuters, Feb. 16, 2017
  31. "Art Dealer Sentenced to More Than Three Years in Prison for Selling Forged Modern Art," Art Forum, Feb. 20, 2017
  32. Caroline Elbaor, "Art Dealer Eric Spoutz Sentenced to Over Three Years in Prison for Selling Forgeries," Artnet News, Feb. 20, 2017
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