Fine art of the steal: Dealer gets jail

A Manhattan art dealer who admitted to playing fast and loose with works by Pablo Picasso and Edgar Degas to hide his financial failure was sentenced to 18 months behind bars on Thursday.

Ezra Chowaiki, who was the face of Chowaiki & Co. Fine Art Ltd. on Park Avenue before its bankruptcy last year, was sentenced by US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan. The dealer pleaded guilty in May and agreed to forfeit $16 million and 25 works of art. He was also ordered to pay $12.9 million in restitution.

Chowaiki, 49, had faced as many as 20 years in prison for wire fraud but sought a term of one year and a day in prison, saying he suffered from “prolonged depression” as his business began to crumble.

“My lying and scheming were antithetical to my conduct. This is why it’s so hard for me to understand why I allowed myself to do something so terrible,” he said Wednesday. “Why did I do it all? The short an- swer is, I got desperate.”

Prosecutors said Chowaiki ripped off at least a half-dozen art dealers with sham transactions in which some victims were led to believe they were buying stakes in fine art earmarked for quick resale.

Other victims left works at his gallery on consignment and never got them back, including one collector who lost a $1.2 million painting, prosecutors said.

Chowaiki’s arrest last year stunned the New York art world and left collectors scrambling to file claims in the bankruptcy case. The government is still attempting to return dozens of works to their owners.