Former gallery owner indicted on embezzlement charges
If convicted, art dealer could face up to 33 years in prison
A grand jury has indicted former Santa Fe gallery owner and art dealer Steve Brennen on felony embezzlement charges, accusing him of failing to pay five different artists whose work he carried at a gallery he owned on Canyon Road.
The exact value of the art he is accused of stealing is unclear. Three of the counts allege that Brennen embezzled $20,000 or more, while two counts charge him with embezzling amounts of more than $2,500 but less than $20,000.
Brennen, 58, through his attorney, John Anderson, declined to be interviewed for this story.
Court records say he entered a not guilty plea and is living in Rancho Mirage, Calif., while awaiting trial.
Angela Mia De La Vega, a Dallasbased sculptor who is one of the alleged victims named in court documents, said Brennen owes her $108,000 for bronze sculptures he never paid for or returned.
De La Vega said she used to jokingly refer to Brennen as the “silver-tongued fox” because every time she called to ask about her inventory and sales of her sculptures, the calls ended without her getting the information she sought but having agreed to send more artwork.
De La Vega said she dealt with Brennen for about 10 years, and that he always paid, albeit slowly, until about a year and a half ago, when he and her artwork vanished.
“I knew him well professionally and somewhat personally as well,” she said.
“At one point he was paying,” she said. “He always sold my art, but he was never on time to pay and I would have to chase him to find out what he had sold and to get payment.”
De La Vega said she thought Brennen intended to make good to the artists whom he owed money but couldn’t.
“I think he had run into some real trouble and had hoped for a big summer in Santa Fe to get caught up,” she said, “and the summer came and went and he didn’t have the big sales he had hoped for.”
Marina Dieul, a French painter based in Canada, told
in a series of Facebook messages that she began working with Brennen in 2012 and that he sold her paintings, and paid her for them, until 2016, when one of her large paintings, which Brennen has in his possession, was featured on the cover of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine.
Dieul said she was traveling at the time and that when she returned home she called Brennen expecting to hear the painting had sold. “He never answered me,” she said, “and I quickly heard the bad news from other artists.”
Some artists told her Brennen had shipped their works back to them at their own expense, Dieul said, but “he had totally stopped communicating with me.”
She wrote that she did get confirmation from a former gallery employee that her large painting had been sold in August. Dieul said another employee had offered to help but never got back to her.
Dieul said her paintings range in price from $900 to $20,000, and that eight works she entrusted to Brennen have not been recovered.
Other artists whose work Brennen is accused of taking include T.A. Yoshii Chie, Gary Weisman and Jean Luc Messin.
Brennen’s gallery, SR Brennen Fine Art, was located at 555 Canyon Road in a space now occupied by Gallery 901. A man who answered the phone there Friday said the owners were away and declined to comment for this story, but he did say that Gallery 901 took over the space at the beginning of October.
Brennen’s son, Trey Brennen, said his father used to have galleries in Carmel, Calif.; Palm Desert, Calif.; and Naples, Fla., as well as Scottsdale, Ariz.
The younger Brennen said he bought his father’s Scottsdale gallery more than four years ago and hasn’t had much of a relationship with his father since.
“He put me in a pickle myself and we aren’t close,” Trey Brennen said.
If convicted on all counts, Steve Brennen faces a maximum penalty of 33 years in prison and up to $40,000 in fines.