In 2022, the Anglo-American artist Emma Webster thought he was concluding his best sale with the pop star. But behind this flattering order hid a carefully prepared scam.
In 2021, Emma Webster completed one of her last paintings: Happy Valley. A gigantic table: 2 m by 3, dark foliage and a filtered light through them. In this work, the Anglo-American artist painted a voracious, almost alive nature, “capable of engulfing space and those who contemplate it”. A canvas that she thought she had sold for 55,000 dollars to Stefani Germanotta – the real name of Lady Gaga. The email seemed sincere, the credible contact address, the solid transaction. Until his Happy Valley Mysteriously resurfaces, three years later, during an auction at Christie’s in Hong Kong, and that the scam does not break out. Currently, the FBI is still trying to go up the track of this unexpected fraud.
Koji, the French bulldog as bait
The story begins in 2021, in the Los Angeles workshop by Emma Webster, a 36 -year -old emerging painter. Between his white walls flooded with sun, the artist gives the last brushstrokes to Happy Valleyan immersive, dizzying canvas, in which a lush forest seems to extend far beyond the limits of the frame. Emma likes saturated landscapes, the light games that pierce darkness, as evidenced by many of her other works. In 2022, while she forged her place on the artistic scene, her paintings are quickly sold, and her name begins to circulate in the circles of private collectors. Until the first email arrived from Stéphani Germanotta, the real name of Lady Gaga. “I’m a big fan of your work, would you have available paintings?” I scored my collection, made up of influential female artists like Kusama, Frankenthaler, Louise Bourgeois, Lynda Benglis and many others. Your works would complete it perfectly. Looking forward to reading you, Stefani. “
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Emma Webster is stunned. Lady Gaga? The address, although intriguing, nevertheless seems coherent: “[email protected]”, in reference to Koji, the name of one of the French bulldog of the Pop singer, a detail that only attentive fans know. Emma Webster then allows herself to believe it. It is not uncommon for celebrities to place their fortune in the works of vogue artists, transformed into prestigious windows for the latter. “Wow. Thank you very much for your nice words. I love the collections focused on the emancipation of women, and these are heavy goods vehicles! ”, Answers the artist directly by email, without going through an agent. The exchange continues, Emma Webster offering him Happy Valleyhis only table in stock. The shipper claims to have to go on tour and hopes that the sale ends quickly through his assistant, however asking for a rebate at 55,000 dollars. For caution, it requires proof of identity. “Here is a little photo of me adjusting a few things before hitting the road!” Immediately sends him the false Lady Gaga.
A few days later, the payment of $ 55,000 comes well on the artist’s account. The table is shipped but Emma makes a final request, asking that the canvas is not sold for five years, a clause made to stabilize the rating of his works. The false Lady Gaga accepts: “Absolutely, I never sell”.
“I fear that you have not been duped”
For two years, Emma Webster likes to tell with a certain pride that one of her paintings now belongs to the interpreter of Bad Romance. Until the day when, in 2024, his father came across an Instagram publication of the Christie’s house. “Ready for the marathon of the month of art in Hong Kong?” We are delighted to present Happy Valley of Emma Webster among the flagship lots of our post-millennial sale. ” After the feeling of betrayal, the misunderstanding comes. Why would Lady Gaga sell this table, in contradiction with their agreement? While she immediately contacts the star manager, the answer is final: “I’m afraid you were duped. Lady Gaga never bought this table. She does not have this email address. We are sincerely sorry. “
As she confides in the New York Timeswho devoted a portrait to him, Emma Webster is bitter and still wants to have not spotted the alarm signals earlier. In particular concerning the address shipment of the table. “Stefani Germanotta” had notably specified in an email that the delivery would be made in the name of “Chris Horton”, identified in an email like his butler, but this name did not appear anywhere on the shipping slip, finally intended for temporary storage. “For info, Emma, we attach great importance to confidentiality following certain incidents with deliverers in the past,” reassured the false Lady Gaga.
Faced with the deception, Emma Webster tried to go up the track. The table was sent to Christie’s to be sold by Matt Chung, gallery owner to Hong Kong, all through a certain John Wolf, artistic advisor based in Los Angeles who “had no fraudulent activity and was also a victim of unhappy circumstances”. Despite everything, the vagueness surrounds the transactions. Who is the initial buyer and where do the $ 55,000 received by Emma Webster come from?
Christie’s house
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It is now up to the FBI to answer this question. As for Emma Webster, it still awaits the restitution of the table, although its usurper has not been identified. Indeed, if the auction house has agreed to withdraw the work of art from its catalog, it nevertheless refused to return it to it. “As a neutral party, once a work is entrusted to us, we are required to keep it in the event of a problem until its resolution,” said a spokesperson from Christie’s. For its part, Chung said it was ready to share part of the recipes (up to 30%) of any sale de Happy Valley With her designer Emma Webster, if she accepted a new auction. What she has declined.
Unsurprisingly, this scam left a mark on the confidence it grants to its future buyers, but also made it possible to strengthen its rating on the art market. Because Emma Webster did not always have the notoriety that she has today, marked by difficult beginnings when she arrived in Los Angeles. Originally from Encinitas, in California, she will have known several years of galley, living almost on the street, before the attention of Alice Lung, associated with the prestigious Perrotin gallery, in Paris, was carried on her paintings and decides to include it in the inaugural exhibition of the gallery in Seoul. If Emma Webster is still fighting to know the identity of her criminal, and thereby prevent him from trapping other artists, she nevertheless concludes, almost flattered, her interview for the New York Times In these words: “I would never have imagined that someone would need to pretend to be a pop star just to have access to one of my paintings”.
