The Daily Telegraph

‘Art agent to stars’ admits £500,000 fraud charges

- By Olivia Rudgard

AN ART dealer who worked with musicians including Ronnie Wood and Yoko Ono has admitted defrauding clients out of almost £500,000.

Jonathan Poole was known as an art agent to the stars and had previously represente­d the art estates of Wood, Miles Davis and John Lennon.

Poole had held exhibition­s of clients’ work at his gallery near Cheltenham as well as in London and in Munich.

Poole, 69, admitted just under half of 58 charges of theft and fraud relating to artwork at Gloucester Crown Court on Thursday. The charges concerned either the theft of works of art, keeping a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of art, or falsely claiming to be entitled to sell artworks owned by clients.

Some of the paintings involved are thought to be by Wood, including portraits of his band mates Keith Richards and Sir Mick Jagger. Others named included works by French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

James Ward, prosecutin­g, said he thought some of the artworks may be held in storage. “When Mr Poole tried to kill himself in October 2012, he asked a Mr Jackson to look after his stock,” he said. “Mr Jackson has died, but paintings have been found in his storeroom. There is a realistic prospect that some paintings are in that store in Spain, according to police investigat­ions.”

Mark Sharman, defending, said: “He will be 70 years old in September, and is a man of no previous conviction­s. He has recently been diagnosed with an incurable degenerati­ve condition, cerebral atrophy.”

Judge Michael Cullum said Poole was likely to be given an “immediate custodial sentence” subject to a medical report.

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