Mary Boone has been handed a 30 month sentence for tax evasion. In addition to the prison term, Judge Hellerstein ordered the New York gallerist, who pleaded guilty in September to filing false tax returns, to serve one year of supervised release, including 180 hours of community service. Boone’s 2012 tax return reported a loss of $52,000, whereas an investigation by the government’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit uncovered $3.7 million in profits.
The government’s attorney, Geoffrey S. Berman, said in a statement ‘As Manhattan art gallery owner Mary Boone has admitted, her personal tax returns were more a work of impressionism than realism. Seemingly in order from afar, the picture Boone painted of her profits, losses, and expenses was, upon closer inspection, a palette of lies and misrepresentations mixed together to avoid paying over $3 million in taxes.’
Boone will have to report to prison by 1 May. The dealer announced that, therefore, the current exhibitions at her gallery’s two spaces – solo shows for Julia Wachtel and Derrick Adams – will be the last. ‘I had 49 wonderful years in art,’ Boone told Art News. ‘If I’m going to be the Martha Stewart of the art world, I would hope to do it with the same humility, humor, grace, and intelligence that she did. I’m trying to be optimistic and see this as a learning experience.’
Mary Boone Gallery represented the likes of Barbara Kruger, Barry La Va, Robert Barry and Ai Weiwei.
Updated 27 February 2019
