Orlando Whitfield

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Articles

Meet the amateur detective exposing vintage fraud watches and “Frankenwatches"

Nov 6, 2024 | gq-magazine.co.uk | Orlando Whitfield

Uncovering fraud watches is no easy feat. But one man rose to the task. On the afternoon of 5 November 2021, in a large and luxuriously appointed tent on the banks of Lake Geneva, a Phillips horological auction was taking place. Fine and vintage watches – Patek Philippes, Philippe Dufours, FP Journes – were being sold in quick succession by the Swiss auctioneer Aurel Bacs, a man with the grizzled mien of an expensive hitman.
The billionaire’s six-step guide to buying art (and dodging fraudsters)

Aug 18, 2024 | msn.com | Orlando Whitfield

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The billionaire’s six-step guide to buying art (and dodging fraudsters)

Aug 18, 2024 | msn.com | Orlando Whitfield

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The billionaire’s six-step guide to buying art (and dodging fraudsters)

Aug 18, 2024 | finance.yahoo.com | Orlando Whitfield

Woof!: a Jeff Koons balloon dog in Venice - AlamyWith much in life, the difficulty is how to begin; with the art market, doubly so. It’s a murky place filled with shark-eyed men in sharkskin loafers and bewildering, brilliant women ready to invoice you so fast, your head will spin. Who should you trust, what should you buy, and how can you avoid losing it all? In this world of lavish lunches and handshake deals, you’ll need sharp wits while you amass a freeport’s worth of masterpieces.
For Money, Your Honour

Aug 7, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Orlando Whitfield |Cal Revely-Calder

Inigo Philbrick looked the part. He wore ‘tailored Milanese suits and shirts’; he lived in a flat on Grosvenor Square; ‘he was known by the maître d’s at some of the toniest restaurants in town.’ His private art gallery opened in Mayfair in 2011; within six years, it had an annual turnover of more than £100 million. He opened another in Miami in 2018. Philbrick flew on private planes and bought dinners that cost more than the average professional’s monthly salary.
Bravado, Betrayal, and Banksy: Inside One of Art Grifter Inigo Philbrick's Formative Schemes

Aug 6, 2024 | yahoo.com | Orlando Whitfield

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."To be a good art dealer you need to be both prescient and manipulative. The mere ability to spot a trend or an artist is not enough. You have to know how to get what you want from the situation, to buy early and hold your nerve.
In "All That Glitters," Orlando Whitfield Details Inigo Philbrick's $86 Million Art Fraud

Aug 2, 2024 | airmail.news | Orlando Whitfield

In late February 2018 I woke up in the psychiatric ward of a hospital in West London. Outside, thick snow covered everything. I’d slept fitfully, waking every 15 minutes throughout the night when a nurse or orderly would open the door to my room to check on me. I was on suicide watch. Over the past year my life had started to unravel. I’d been drinking heavily, mixing alcohol with Xanax and tramadol.
The White Whale

Jul 31, 2024 | the-fence.com | Orlando Whitfield |Joe Bishop |Jordan Michelman |Eva Wiseman

The memoirs of a bad dealer. I first met The White Whale in early 2017 in the company of Drew, a project-space-impresario-slash-art-advisor. Drew had somehow managed to secure a short-term lease on an enormous and crumbling hotel in west London, using it to stage a number of exhibitions over the period of a year or so; he included several of the artists we represented in these shows.
All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art

May 1, 2024 | literaryreview.co.uk | Orlando Whitfield

The jet-setting, apparently highly successful American art dealer Inigo Philbrick suddenly vanished from Miami in late 2019, leaving at least $86 million of debt. Accusations of fraud, double-dealing, forgery and inventing fictitious buyers for works he didn’t even own had begun to swirl around him.
‘We need to find whoever’s in charge and bang him some cash’: the day Inigo Philbrick and I tried to bag a Banksy

Apr 17, 2024 | theguardian.com | Orlando Whitfield

To be a good art dealer you need to be both prescient and manipulative. The mere ability to spot a trend or an artist is not enough. You have to know how to get what you want from the situation, to buy early and hold your nerve. That I never had this instinct can be evidenced by the fact that when I went to the British street artist Banksy’s Christmas pop-up, Santa’s Ghetto, in December 2004, I bought two prints for £100 each.