New York’s Tracey Amon filed a request on July 25 in the US District Court for the District of Southern New York to subpoena art advisor Sanford “Sandy” Heller. She wants him to turn over documents for use in her lawsuits in Switzerland over the disposition of the assets of her late husband, Maurice Alain Amon, who retained Heller as an advisor starting in 2013. Heller has been described as “possibly the biggest art advisor in the world,” and reputedly works with Roman Abramovich and Steve Cohen.
The heir to the company SIPCA, which makes inks used in printing currency, Maurice died at 68 in 2019 while on holiday in Saint Tropez. The filing puts his value at some $600 million in assets and business interests at the time of his death, and asserts that Tracey is looking for her rightful share. The request revolves around Heller’s valuation of the collection.
The two married in Hong Kong in 2008 “without signing a marriage contract on that occasion or later,” according to an exhibit. He filed abroad for divorce in 2015 without telling her, says the filing, which claims he secretly removed some 20 artworks, collectively valued at $25 million, from their New York home. He allegedly also spirited away artworks from other residences. He claimed in court filings in 2017 that after losing her key, she took a blowtorch to a lockbox in their Paris home, allegedly leaving a toxic dust over artworks by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol.
