A Manhattan art adviser — whose celebrity clients included actor Leonardo DiCaprio — was hit with a “substantial” prison sentence Wednesday for swindling at least a dozen people out of nearly $6.5 million that she used to live large, prosecutors said.
fLisa Schiff was sentenced to 2 1/2 years behind bars by Manhattan federal court Judge Paul Oetken for the five-year scheme involving 55 works of art.
Through her firm Schiff Fine Art, the 54-year-old adviser acted as a middleman between galleries and auction houses and her collector clients, who paid her to purchase artworks for them.
But instead, Schiff would blow the cash on herself and fail to deliver any artwork to the customer, the feds said.
Similarly, when she received money for the sale of a work, instead of paying the client and taking a commission, she kept all the profits for herself.
She had to lie to clients and galleries to keep the con going, for example claiming she hadn’t sold a certain piece of artwork yet when she actually had and telling galleries she hadn’t received payment from her clients yet, when she already did.
Her victims claimed she instead used the funds to pay for a $25,000-a-month apartment rental, a Greek villa vacation rental and European shopping sprees at designer shops.
She also allegedly spent the money on a yacht and a helicopter and used the funds to help shore up mounting debts.
Schiff treated client funds as “her personal piggy bank,” lawyers for her victims wrote in court papers last year.
Her victims included at least one artist, the estate of an artist and one gallery.
“For five years, Lisa Schiff breached the trust of her art advisory clients by diverting millions of dollars to pay her own business and personal expenses, and to fund a lavish lifestyle,” Acting US Attorney Matthew Podolsky said in a statement.
“Because of Schiff’s lies, and her illusory art advisory scam, Schiff will now serve a substantial sentence in prison.”
As part of her sentence, Schiff must also pay back the $6.5 million she stole and an additional $9 million in restitution.
Her defense lawyer, Randy Zelin, told The Post by email that Schiff wants to “make the most of her opportunities while she is in custody.”
“We want to get her on the path to healing and home so she can get back to her primary role as mom and at the same time assist the victims in maximizing their recovery,” Zelin said. “And determine the next chapter in the book of her life.”
Schiff pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in October to the grifts she carried out from 2018 through May 2023.
The embattled art adviser also faces a lawsuit by real-estate heiress Candace Carmel Barasch and her husband, prominent Manhattan lawyer Michael Barasch, for allegedly stealing from them.
That case has been on hold because of an open bankruptcy case in which she has been auctioning off art to pay down her debts.
Her lawyer in that litigation didn’t return a request for comment Wednesday.
