Feds: Former Birmingham art dealer gets 5 years in prison in fine art scheme

Former Birmingham art dealer Wendy Halsted Beard bilked more than 40 people, many of them elderly, for years, defrauding them of millions of dollars in fine art photographs, federal prosecutors say.

Now, Beard, 59, is to spend more than five years in federal prison and pay more than $2 million in restitution in the scheme , according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.

"Beard took her father's once prosperous and highly regarded photography gallery and demolished it from within, leaving behind what amounted to little more than a Ponzi scheme and wreaking financial havoc along the way," prosecutors wrote in court papers ahead of Beard's sentencing Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor.

Beard pleaded guilty in July 2023 to one count of wire fraud. She was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced in a release Wednesday.

"Beard's ongoing deception was of a level that we rarely see, even in fraud cases, lying to her customers repeatedly in an attempt to conceal her scheme," U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison stated in the release.

Prosecutors wrote in their memorandum that much of the artwork is now gone, with about 250 pieces still missing, notwithstanding the seizure of nearly 700 other, less valuable photographs.

When the victims confronted Beard, prosecutors stated, they were met with "lie upon lie," with Beard faking being in a coma, faking receiving a double lung transplant and inventing the identities of multiple people and using those "employees" to attempt to lull the victims into a false sense of security.

According to 43 victims or their successors, about 393 fine art photographs were either consigned to Beard with proceeds never paid or bought from Beard but were not received, according to the government. Less than 150 of those photographs were found by the government, and additional victims have come forward as recently as July.

More: Conservancy sues ex-CFO, wife, mom over alleged lavish spending of nonprofit's cash

The single most valuable image is an oversize print of Ansel Adams' "The Tetons and the Snake River," which Beard appraised as being worth $625,000 in 2016. It was consigned to her in 2018, prosecutors stated, along with other Adams prints.

Prosecutors stated she sold it in 2019 for $440,000 and kept the proceeds. It was resold multiple times, with the most recent price of $685,000, the original agreed price at the time of consignment. The victim owner never received any of the proceeds, according to the government.

In another case, a photograph entitled "Night View, New York," by Berenice Abbott was consigned with an agreed price of $17,000 by a victim who never received the proceeds from the sale. Prosecutors stated the sale price was $24,500 to a different victim, who never received the photograph. The whereabouts of the photo were unknown.

Beard tried to return copies of valuable photographs and passed them off as originals, prosecutors alleged.

"There is no doubt that this is a serious offense, given the number of victims and the amount of the fraud. The defense neither denies nor makes excuses for the underlying conduct," Steve Fishman , one of Beard's attorneys, wrote in the defense's sentencing memorandum.

Beard was involved in the art gallery business for about 30 years, first working for her father at the Halsted Gallery and then opening the Wendy Halsted Gallery, which she operated from 2006-21 until it was closed as a result of the case, according to the memorandum Fishman submitted.

"It is notable that, at least to defense counsel's knowledge, there were no complaints about Ms. Beard's operation of the gallery until some time in late 2018. Since the closing of the gallery, Ms. Beard has been working as a sales representative, earning approximately $900.00 per week," according to the memorandum, which also provided some details about her physical, mental and emotional health and indicated she is out of the art gallery business.

"For a woman who is alleged to have obtained millions of dollars through her illegal conduct, she has minimal assets. Her home is burdened by a large mortgage as well as a lien due to a civil lawsuit," it continued, adding that when law enforcement came to the home to seize items that might be used to satisfy the judgment, "they essentially found nothing worth taking. She earns a modest wage and owes a significant amount to creditors, not to mention nearly $500,000 in other civil judgments."

Beard wants to make victims whole, according to her lawyers, and will make larger payments if she is able after she completes her sentence. They questioned where the money went, with probation noting that Beard leased horses for her daughter for 10 months from 2020-21, but the amount "comes nowhere near the millions claimed by the victims."

Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press.

Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters .

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Feds: Former Birmingham art dealer gets 5 years in prison in fine art scheme