Standing in a room in the Art Gallery of Ontario, side-by-side with famed architect Frank Gehry, Mirvish unveiled a massive three-tower condo complex with an art museum at its base. It was a development that could remake an entire section of downtown Toronto. It would also give a permanent home to the art Mirvish has spent his lifetime acquiring. It was, in every respect, an audacious bid, one meant to cement the Mirvish name in Toronto, to make it synonymous, in the way Guggenheim is, with fine art.

Four months later, in a courthouse in Manhattan, lawyers working for Mirvish disclosed his entanglement in another art project, one that was equally audacious, if not quite as well advertised. It involved allegations of serial forgery, a mysterious millionaire and a bundle of wealthy financiers. Even by the baroque standards of the New York art scene it was a scandal…Continue reading