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PHONE KEYS BEEP

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PHONE KEYS BEEP

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PHONE RINGS

4
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Oh, hello. I wonder if you can help.

5
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My name's Vanessa Engle.
I'm calling from London

6
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in relation to a documentary
that I'm making

7
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about an art dealer
called Michel Cohen.

8
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If he surfaces anywhere,
they will find him.

9
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I mean, he's basically on the run
for his entire life.

10
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There were so many
knowledgeable dealers

11
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that were trusting him
for tremendous amounts of money.

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He came in and he was trying
to sell us a Picasso painting

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and he would just basically sign
for it and take the work of art.

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If you had to hazard a guess
as to where he is now...

15
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Uruguay, Panama,
South America somewhere.

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You know, in all the movies,
they all go to Mexico

17
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to hide out on the beach somewhere.

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I believe there was a contract
put out on him, and he's dead.

19
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Did you ever hear how much money
Michel stole?

20
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I would say it had to be
40 million or better.

21
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The total loss was a little bit
over 50 million, I believe.

22
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I would say that every month or so,

23
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I will do a Google search
trying to find out information.

24
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And have you ever found anything?
No.

25
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Can you tell me your name?

26
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Michel Cohen.

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JAUNTY PARISIAN MUSIC

28
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So, Michel we know is born
in 1953 in France.

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JAUNTY PARISIAN MUSIC

30
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He came from a suburb of France.
It was a poor suburb.

31
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I was told his father
was a cab driver.

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CAR HORN TOOTS

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SHOUTING IN FRENCH

34
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I don't know if any of this is true.

35
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He worked at night as a taxi driver.

36
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My mother, she took some classes
to learn how to be a secretary.

37
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They did not get along at all.
They were so different, you know.

38
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It was verbal violence.

39
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You know, I mean,
a lot of screaming and it was...

40
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..a lot of anxiety.

41
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I think when he was maybe 16, 17,

42
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he pushed his mother

43
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to divorce her husband
because he was abusive to her.

44
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I think his dad, you know,
abandoned them.

45
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The only possible provider
had to be Michel.

46
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He became the man of the family
and he felt that he had to

47
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take care of his mother,
brother, sister.

48
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He had that idea that money
could save the day.

49
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How old were you, Michel,
when you left school?

50
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I was 17.

51
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He was a high school dropout.

52
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But he was very bright,
very intelligent,

53
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and a great memory.

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He could really remember things.

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EERIE MUSIC

56
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He played chess
and he was very good at it.

57
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Chess is strategy - figuring
things several moves ahead.

58
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For him, maybe life was
a little bit like a chess game.

59
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"An encyclopaedia ought to explain
as much as possible

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"the order and connection
of human knowledge."

61
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I saw an ad in the paper,

62
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and they were looking for people
working door-to-door selling, erm...

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..Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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At the age of 19,

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he was selling the Encyclopaedia
Britannica door-to-door,

66
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and he was the number-one salesman
in France.

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# You make me feel

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# Mighty real

69
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# You make me feel

70
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# Mighty real... #

71
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We met, I believe, it was 1976,

72
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in Paris, or in a club...

73
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..dancing.

74
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Disco days.

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# I feel real when you kiss me... #

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He felt that things were
not moving fast enough

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and he was wanting something more,

78
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and so we went to America
to check it out.

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AEROPLANE ENGINE

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MUSIC: Young Hearts Run Free
by Candi Staton

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In or around 1980,
he leaves France with Richard Roy

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and arrives in America.

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# Ooo-oooh, young hearts

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# To yourself be true

85
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# Don't be no fool
when love really don't love you

86
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# It don't love you

87
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# Ooh, young hearts

88
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# Run free

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# They'll never be hung up

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# Hung up like my man and me... #

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I went to the States
with my friend, Richard,

92
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who is a very intelligent guy,
and it was an adventure.

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We kind of moved around California
and went, you know,

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Grand Canyon, everything.

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We bought a used Cadillac.

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Metallic pink with a white interior.
HE CHUCKLES

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Wow!

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We bought a sailboat.

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We lived on the boat for a year and
we sailed all the Hawaiian islands.

100
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It was really beautiful.

101
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Yeah, I had big dreams, I think.

102
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BOAT HORN

103
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MUSIC: Jim On The Move
by Lalo Schifrin

104
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Back to San Francisco,
always looking at things to do.

105
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What could we do?

106
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So I had the idea - we're French,
we could make pate and sell it.

107
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Well, the pate-making
was just an idea.

108
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And we tried and we succeeded...

109
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..a pretty good recipe.

110
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And so, yeah, we tried to sell
the pate and then we had criticism.

111
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"There's too much tarragon
in your chicken tarragon."

112
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So then Michel say,
"OK, maybe it's not going to work.

113
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"We're not going to become rich
that way."

114
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Then he moves on to selling posters

115
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and framing them.

116
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Then he met someone who had bought

117
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tonnes of lithographs

118
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and printed artwork in France,

119
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and so I went back there and I
bought a stack of things like that.

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Maybe they cost me
an average of $15 a piece.

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It created my first income
in the States,

122
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and I did that for a year and then
I studied visiting art galleries.

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MUSIC: Bossa Em Nova York
by Lalo Schifrin

124
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I think it's around the time
that we met Ed Russell,

125
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and he was the source
of a lot of information.

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He was an opportunist.

127
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He took every opportunity
offered to him,

128
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and more power to him to do that.

129
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Because you could not help...

130
00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,040
..wanting to help Michel Cohen.

131
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And I got to know the owners
of his galleries

132
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and the salespeople

133
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and I decided to put a small ad
in the San Francisco Chronicle,

134
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you know, listing some graphics
for sale by this artist.

135
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And I got calls, you know.

136
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I met my first private clients
through that ad

137
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that I think cost me $100.

138
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I saw an ad in an art magazine

139
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for a gallery in San Francisco.

140
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I called the number and he said,

141
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"My name is Michael Cohen."

142
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And I said, "Oh, are you Jewish?"
He said, "Yes."

143
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And I said, "I am."

144
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And, erm, that helped us bond.

145
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CLASSICAL MUSIC

146
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One day he asked me to meet him
for drinks

147
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and he proposed
that I lent him some money.

148
00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:28,160
He told me about a New Zealand
racing boat that was for sale...

149
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..and if I lent him the money,

150
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he promised to pay it back
within three months.

151
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How much money was it?
I think it was $50,000.

152
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And I wrote him a cheque.

153
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And within a short period of time,

154
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he returned the investment,
and it was all good.

155
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UPLIFTING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

156
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Every weekend I would invite friends

157
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and we would sail
in San Francisco Bay.

158
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Are you a good sailor, Michel?

159
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I like steering the boat

160
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and, you know,
I like when it goes fast.

161
00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:32,160
Michael told me the story
of his family.

162
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As the Germans marched into Paris,

163
00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:40,320
Michael's grandparents
said to Michael's mother,

164
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"You need to take your younger
brother and sister out of Paris

165
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"and protect them during the war."

166
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And she did, and they somehow were
saved in the outskirts of Paris.

167
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These are some of the documents
we found relating to Michel,

168
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which show that his grandparents,
Salomon Chich and Viviane Chich,

169
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both died in Auschwitz
at the hands of the Nazis in 1942.

170
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There were two sides of him.

171
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There was the love of things that
are simple and real and natural,

172
00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:25,760
and then there was that notion
that money solves all the problems

173
00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:29,720
so we'd better have a lot of it
to protect ourselves.

174
00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:46,440
Did you call Michel Cohen
Michel or Michael? Michael.

175
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:48,440
Initially it was Mike.

176
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And did it change?

177
00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:53,680
It did, after a while,
and he became...

178
00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:58,480
..somewhat of a serious dealer
halfway through his career,

179
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:00,560
it become Michel.

180
00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:03,560
Do you know why he went from
Michael to Michel? I don't know.

181
00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:06,720
I think it made the dealers
feel good to call him Michel.

182
00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:08,800
It made us feel more international.

183
00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:11,520
Like, you know,
of course we're sophisticated.

184
00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:14,360
You would call him Michel,
not Michael. He's French.

185
00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:18,760
When you sell art and you're French
and you have a French accent,

186
00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:21,400
it's a good selling point.

187
00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:25,480
Americans always think that
somebody from somewhere else

188
00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:27,760
is going to know more than they do.

189
00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:37,480
Did he know about art, Ed? No.

190
00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:41,240
Michael knew nothing about art
in the beginning.

191
00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:42,720
Nothing.

192
00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:48,240
Michael, Michel,
nothing really mattered

193
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:50,920
except the value of the commodity.

194
00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:53,520
I don't think Michael
knew anything about art,

195
00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,440
and I don't think that Michael
particularly loved art

196
00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:58,200
or even liked art.

197
00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:01,720
Michael could have sold anything

198
00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,920
and, as it turned out, he sold art.

199
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,360
REPORTER: It's broken down
into the regions -

200
00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:10,760
the various land regions,
political, arts.

201
00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:13,720
I learned very quickly
and I studied auction records.

202
00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:18,200
In these days I had a good memory
so I would really remember

203
00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:22,280
the style of image
and the price it sold for.

204
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:26,000
He had piles of auction catalogues.

205
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,120
And he would know them by heart.

206
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:31,960
I remember those catalogues,
there were Post-it notes

207
00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:34,280
at almost every page.

208
00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:37,520
He would remember the size
of the painting,

209
00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:40,640
the year of the painting,
the price that it did at auction -

210
00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:42,720
he would remember everything.

211
00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:47,680
MUSIC: Jim On The Move
by Lalo Schifrin

212
00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:54,720
In 1987, he gets his own actual
gallery space in San Francisco.

213
00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:12,000
He had a small gallery
in San Francisco called Pentimento,

214
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,640
and I think he started out
mostly with prints.

215
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:18,520
He would go to New York as being
the dealer from the West Coast,

216
00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,960
so he would go visit them, look at
what they have for sale and say,

217
00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:24,280
"Ooh, I think I have a client
for that."

218
00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,680
You know, "I'd like to have this
photograph. Could I borrow it?

219
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,040
"I'll just come back in an hour."

220
00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:33,720
He would borrow the painting,
he would take it across the street

221
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:36,760
to another art dealer,
who would never cross the street

222
00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:39,400
to the first one
and sell it to that guy!

223
00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:41,320
HE LAUGHS

224
00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:44,520
And in New York, you know,

225
00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:47,720
it's very wheeling and dealing
all the time at high speed,

226
00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:51,120
so people are just, "Oh, yeah,
let's make it happen fast."

227
00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:55,000
Michel loved that. He say,
"I can do a deal a day in New York."

228
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:01,960
That was what I was good at.

229
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:04,480
You know, a good image...

230
00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:07,760
..and finding out what people like

231
00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:10,080
because they all like
different things

232
00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:12,680
so you have to look for
the right painting.

233
00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:16,160
He could see what was selling,

234
00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:20,000
and he's like, "OK, Chagall is
selling. I need to get Chagall."

235
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:21,840
"Chagall prints are selling

236
00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:24,440
"but, wow, there's more money
in Chagall paintings.

237
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:27,480
"I need to take that leap
from the print to the painting."

238
00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:29,440
He figured out the game real fast.

239
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:31,160
He was a quick study.

240
00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:36,440
MUSIC: Shafted
by Suburban Soul Crew

241
00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:53,120
He always loved nice things.

242
00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:56,160
He felt that the more rich you look,

243
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,440
the more trustworthy you are.

244
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,360
You know, the nice suit,
the tie, the shirt.

245
00:18:08,360 --> 00:18:11,400
He had his shirt made-to-measure
in Beverly Hills.

246
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,640
He created a little bit
that character

247
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,080
of a very successful art dealer.

248
00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,920
I like Porsches but, you know,

249
00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,720
I would buy Mercedes for comfort.

250
00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:36,240
Once I bought a Ferrari,
but I did not like it.

251
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:39,960
You know, it's very uncomfortable,
it's not good for business.

252
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:41,840
You can't bring paintings in it.

253
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:50,000
I mean, we'd walk into
the Mercedes dealership,

254
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,240
they would just all jump up,
"Oh, Mr Cohen," you know,

255
00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:55,320
"how nice to see you..."

256
00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:58,720
and they knew they were going to
make a sale, boom, right there.

257
00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:02,680
He would buy a car,
drive it three months,

258
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:05,240
and then sell it
and buy another one,

259
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:09,680
so I say, you know, "You actually
lost $90,000 on cars this year."

260
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:11,480
"Oh, yeah, but..."

261
00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,720
I'd say, "What's wrong with that
one?" "I don't like the seats."

262
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,640
Was he very focused on making money?

263
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:23,240
You're asking me that?

264
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:27,760
Are you serious?
I mean, my one mantra...

265
00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:32,240
..to Michel Cohen was,
"Michael, stop.

266
00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:37,200
"There is such a thing as enough.

267
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:42,200
"You cannot be your clients.
You never will be your clients."

268
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,920
The collectors always have
more money than the dealers,

269
00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:49,120
and you see how a collector lives.

270
00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:51,480
I mean, you have to have money
to collect art.

271
00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:53,480
It is an elitist business.

272
00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:56,120
These people have money
and they live well.

273
00:19:56,120 --> 00:19:59,640
Vacation homes, you know, all
the toys, the cars, the watches.

274
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:01,840
You know all the nonsense.

275
00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:04,760
And he was thrilled
by that lifestyle.

276
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,200
He wanted to be part of that world.

277
00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:09,240
Now, whether it's the classic,

278
00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:12,000
"I come from poverty,
I never want to go back there,"

279
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,320
you know, "I live in fear
of going broke" -

280
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,480
that, I don't know, but definitely
wanting the good life.

281
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:23,440
MUSIC: The Wave
by Lalo Schifrin

282
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:32,480
In 1990,

283
00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:36,000
he moves to LA, and around
that time he meets, erm...

284
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:37,440
Oops.

285
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:39,480
..he meets Tanya Bonakdar.

286
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:43,960
She liked to work
with living artist.

287
00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:49,000
Her thing was to one day open up
a gallery and show young artists,

288
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,840
so I went for the adventure again.

289
00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:06,960
In 1992, he moves to New York
with Tanya

290
00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:09,880
and he opens a gallery
at 1018 Madison.

291
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,760
When he opened this gallery,
it was, I think, the first gallery

292
00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:32,520
in the United States to show
the work of Damien Hirst.

293
00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:36,160
He was in partners with Tanya
Bonakdar, I think, at the time

294
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,400
and they showed a number of artists
for the first time in New York.

295
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:45,400
Damien Hirst did a show
that was called The Pharmacy,

296
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,760
where it was bottles of medication

297
00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:52,400
and the entire gallery had shelves
with bottles of medication.

298
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:54,640
That was just the whole show.

299
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:58,680
I had to find all these empty
medication bottles.

300
00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:00,400
HE CHUCKLES

301
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:02,120
Yeah, it was a great show.

302
00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:04,440
It's at the Tate Gallery now.

303
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,080
I heard they paid
two million for it.

304
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:24,720
The nature of what
he was doing was,

305
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:28,160
you get a glossy 8x10
transparency...

306
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,840
..and you shop it around, you bring
it over with a provenance sheet,

307
00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:35,680
you get it borrowed,
we bring it over to your gallery,

308
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:39,080
put it on the wall and make it seem
like it's in your property.

309
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:43,360
A big buyer comes in,
he looks at it and goes, "No."

310
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:47,080
So you take it down,
you take your own sticker off

311
00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:49,520
and you rush it back
to the original owner,

312
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:53,360
so you kind of, like, inch yourself
into the provenance for...

313
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:58,760
..half an hour or an hour a day
or whatever, depending.

314
00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:03,080
Normally you would just get 10%,
but if it's $1 million,

315
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:06,200
I mean, that's like $100,000
for lugging a painting

316
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,440
from one place to the next.

317
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,800
So, one or two of those a month.

318
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:14,840
CAR HORN

319
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:21,280
He went from somebody
that nobody knew

320
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:24,400
to somebody
who a lot of people knew...

321
00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:30,520
..to a very different plateau
where everybody knew him,

322
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:34,200
including the major galleries,
auction houses,

323
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:36,680
dealers and collectors
around the world.

324
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:54,520
He got incredible inventory.

325
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,200
Incredible Dubuffets,
incredible Chagalls,

326
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,760
and, like, all of a sudden,

327
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,400
he was selling major works of art.

328
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,800
So was he considered
a major dealer then? Yeah.

329
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,760
In all the circles
and all the big-name dealers.

330
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,400
He was on their lips,
they bought from him,

331
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:17,440
and his provenance was there.
I mean, he was good.

332
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,240
I was selling mostly Dubuffet...
CASH REGISTER PINGS

333
00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:26,560
..Picasso...
CASH REGISTER PINGS

334
00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:29,840
..Gerard Victor, de Kooning...
CASH REGISTER PINGS

335
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,280
..Giacometti.
CASH REGISTER PINGS

336
00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:37,760
And quite a number of works
by Monet.

337
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:41,000
I mean, there were...
it's hard to say

338
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,720
affordable, but you could buy
good Monets

339
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:47,280
for between one and two million.

340
00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:00,320
He was, I suppose,
quite a bit younger than I was.

341
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,040
Was he good-looking?

342
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:06,000
Not my taste, but
I'm sure he was to other people.

343
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,680
I mean, he was dark-haired
with curly black hair.

344
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:12,160
I go, actually, for blonds, so...

345
00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:14,480
SHE CHUCKLES

346
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:16,440
..what can I say?

347
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:18,960
All my husbands have been blond.

348
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:22,640
He was soft spoken.

349
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,280
He was...charming.

350
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:27,840
I don't know that I would
call him a connoisseur.

351
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:30,960
I don't think he collected
very much himself.

352
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,960
Erm, and I think he was
a shrewd businessperson.

353
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,520
Did you like him? I did.

354
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:42,200
Did you trust him?

355
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:43,560
I did.

356
00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,840
We did a lot of business with him.
A LOT of business with him.

357
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,480
And he was considered
one of our close associates.

358
00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:55,000
When he was selling big pictures,
they were up in the millions.

359
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:58,840
He would just basically sign for it
and take the work of art.

360
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,280
Would he literally take it under
his arm and walk it down the street?

361
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,080
Small enough, he would.
Big enough, it would get trucked.

362
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,800
He managed to get the trust
of these people

363
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:13,440
who would actually even send him
paintings without any paperwork.

364
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,840
That's the crazy thing
about the art world.

365
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:21,960
But, because of his reputation and
the volume of work that he's done,

366
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:25,800
and in those days, anything
that he would say he would do,

367
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,800
so he would say, you know,
"I'll pay you on the 25th,"

368
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:32,280
he would pay a person on...
It was no delay. Sure thing.

369
00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:37,520
The reputation was great.

370
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:41,640
I was not a dealer who has been
there two or three generations,

371
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:44,120
but I could get, erm...

372
00:26:44,120 --> 00:26:47,800
..pictures, you know,
for two, three, four million.

373
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:49,800
So it's your reputation.

374
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:54,440
It takes years to build
and a few seconds to lose it.

375
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:12,560
Michel was essentially
an intermediary

376
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:15,800
dealing in the middle
impressionist market.

377
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:20,760
Pictures valued from 500,000
to a million or $2 million.

378
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,600
The obvious souvenir pictures -

379
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:25,720
Chagall, Picasso -

380
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:29,360
easy pictures to sell.
Not particularly important pictures.

381
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:32,240
Taxi! Taxi!

382
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:37,120
I had to make a character judgment.

383
00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:40,160
He had done business with Sotheby's
for some time

384
00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:42,440
and he was a faithful performer.

385
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,760
I remember going to his apartment
on the Upper East Side

386
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:50,280
to meet him, just so I could see
who he was and how he lived.

387
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,600
So, obviously there was
his track record as a dealer,

388
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,400
but then there was the fact
that he just seemed like

389
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,280
a fine, upstanding, bourgeois guy,
is that right?

390
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:00,480
Yeah, just like me.

391
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,720
He needed more and more capital

392
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,680
and I did...

393
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,640
..recommend him to my father

394
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:16,480
because my father is...

395
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,920
..primarily involved in finance.

396
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:24,680
Michel had always been most reliable

397
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:29,120
and we started to acquire works,

398
00:28:29,120 --> 00:28:32,840
if I recall, primarily by Picasso.

399
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:34,800
BELL RINGS

400
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:43,480
It's hard to put an exact date,

401
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:45,760
but it's around this time
in the early '90s

402
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:47,800
that he starts options trading.

403
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:53,120
# Double your money
and try to get rich

404
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:56,400
# Double your money
without any hitch

405
00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,000
# Double your money,
it's your lucky day

406
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,240
# Double your money
and take it away. #

407
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,960
I decided that I wanted to start
day trading stocks.

408
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,200
I went out and bought this device
called a QuoTrek,

409
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:16,800
where you could track
and trade options in real time

410
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,480
and you can hold it
in the palm of your hand.

411
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:21,680
Ready to go? Almost.

412
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,600
Well, no, not really.
Got to keep an eye on my stock.

413
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:27,280
The volume is through the roof.
Why sit at your PC?

414
00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,400
I've got it all right here
on QuoTrek.

415
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:33,400
Look - stocks, options and futures,
plus news and charting.

416
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:37,000
Well, what are we waiting for?
Let's go. Can I borrow that?

417
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,240
Sure. Well, I think you need to call
and get your own.

418
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,040
Because Michel and I were
hanging out those years,

419
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:46,000
he asked about it,
he became fascinated by it,

420
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,800
and, in short, he went out
and also opened an account,

421
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,840
an options trading account, bought
a QuoTrek machine and went at it.

422
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:01,200
What was your first
successful trade?

423
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:03,720
20,000 I invested and I made...

424
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,920
I got 100,000 back within days.

425
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:09,760
So I felt, gee, it's great!

426
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:11,720
It's better than art, you know.

427
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:15,160
It's liquid and the returns
are tremendous.

428
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,440
Yeah, it's nice to make money,
you know. Lots of money.

429
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,880
Did we roll
that last 25 million that we had?

430
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:26,320
I used to see him at auctions
all the time and we'd talk

431
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:28,760
and he was always on the phone
talking to his broker,

432
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:31,120
on his cellphone,
sell this and do that.

433
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:33,440
So, it seemed to me
like he was, like,

434
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:36,080
from making all the money
in the art,

435
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:38,920
he started getting involved
with the stock market,

436
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:42,400
and it was more important for him
to be on the phone

437
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,160
and doing the stocks
than it was selling his art!

438
00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:49,640
There was something
in Michel's nature,

439
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:51,920
and I'm not a psychologist,

440
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:55,240
that never seemed satisfied
with just making a good living,

441
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,480
which he was making, and destined
to make even a much-better living

442
00:30:58,480 --> 00:30:59,640
as an art dealer.

443
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:03,280
But it was too slow for him.

444
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:05,320
SHOUTING

445
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:09,120
He managed to invest, like, $35,000,

446
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:11,640
and in a matter of four months

447
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:13,840
he'd turn it into 3.5 million.

448
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:22,360
Cup number 1...

449
00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:24,080
..passes through cup number 2...

450
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:26,800
..and cup number 2 passes
through cup number 3....

451
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:28,680
Only twice as fast.

452
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:32,040
For him, that was it. He was in
heaven, you know and he felt,

453
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:34,240
"Yeah, I can really feel the market.

454
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,320
"I know where it's going.
I can sense it."

455
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:42,120
What happened is the classic case
where a gambler starts making money

456
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:45,760
early on and believes that
they've got the magic touch,

457
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:47,800
and that's what happened
with Michel.

458
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:52,320
But he said, "Soon, I won't need
the art any more.

459
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,280
"You know how much I would get
if I could double, er,

460
00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:58,360
"you know, every week?

461
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,360
"I would have $16 million
in a year."

462
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:10,960
In 1996,

463
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,160
Michel gets lucky
on the options market again

464
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:16,240
and turns a $30,000 stake

465
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,560
into an astonishing $14 million,

466
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:21,880
which is when he meets
and marries his wife.

467
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:26,560
She was working
at a gallery downstairs.

468
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:30,040
She was pretty much a private art
dealer, art consultant, art dealer.

469
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:32,440
Was she an art connoisseur?

470
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:33,920
Not particularly, I don't think.

471
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,840
I'm not sure how she got into
the business, but not particularly.

472
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,240
I think she was just young,
very young, and eager.

473
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:53,000
So, the wedding took place
in Las Vegas.

474
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,600
We had cocktails and dinner
in Caesar's Palace.

475
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:06,720
We went to one of these
little chapels in Las Vegas.

476
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:08,200
Very...

477
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:09,840
..let's go tacky all the way!

478
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:17,720
In 1997, Michel and his wife
have their first baby

479
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:21,240
and then they move to Malibu,
where they have a second child, and

480
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:24,640
Michel continues to buy and sell
art from the West Coast.

481
00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:29,880
# La mer

482
00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:33,360
# Qu'on voit danser

483
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:36,880
# Le long des golfes clairs

484
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,000
# A des reflets d'argent

485
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:43,760
# La mer

486
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,600
# Des reflets changeants

487
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,800
# Sous la pluie

488
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:53,520
# La mer... #

489
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,560
My name's Tony Mark.
I'm a real estate agent in Malibu.

490
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:03,040
The draw to this area is that
most of these homes are on

491
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,160
an acre or more of land.

492
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:06,440
# La mer... #

493
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:10,600
Point Dume, as it sticks into
the ocean, is surrounded

494
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,000
by these amazing, dramatic coves,

495
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:14,880
and beaches and cliffs,

496
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:16,600
and hiking trails and, erm...

497
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:21,120
It's truly just one of the most
beautiful places in the world.

498
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:36,160
What can you tell me about
Circles On The Point?

499
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:38,600
Is that a very desirable property?

500
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:41,440
Yeah, definitely.
It's an amazing location.

501
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:44,000
It has a very signature architecture

502
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,320
so it does really stand out.

503
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:54,200
You have access to the beach,
amazing views...

504
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:57,320
Yeah, the property itself
has always been very well known.

505
00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:00,760
I would say it's one of the more
recognisable properties

506
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:02,400
probably in all of Malibu.

507
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:09,440
It was a very contemporary house,
quite large.

508
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:12,520
I think it was 8,500 square feet...

509
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,960
..with a 60ft swimming pool.

510
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,040
Yeah, it was great.

511
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:22,040
A lot of movie stars live there.

512
00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:26,120
You know, it was over looking
the Point Dume

513
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,800
and you can see the ocean
on both sides...

514
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,080
..and, er, it was good for the kids.

515
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:40,960
We went there,
and it was like out of a movie.

516
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:49,960
I think he had a black Rolls
in the driveway,

517
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,440
and my memory is he had a chef,

518
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:53,920
and to me that was it.

519
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:57,000
It was like,
"This guy's got his own chef!"

520
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:58,240
There you go.

521
00:35:58,240 --> 00:36:00,800
"What will we be having
for lunch, Mr Cohen?"

522
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:02,240
You know, that sort of thing.

523
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:05,960
My friend and I were walking
around and, of course,

524
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:07,720
he had plenty of art there.

525
00:36:07,720 --> 00:36:11,160
Beautiful surroundings, the water,
this, that...

526
00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:14,320
And it's like he's living the dream.

527
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:17,160
It's a classic, you know,
rags to riches story.

528
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:19,080
I mean, he got to the top.

529
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:21,800
He's the only one I know
who got that far from nothing.

530
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:23,120
He did it.

531
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:31,800
Mythical Icarus soared so high,

532
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:34,800
the sun melted the wax
cementing his wings

533
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:36,480
until he fell into the sea...

534
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:42,120
Michel was a young,

535
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,120
French, Jewish Icarus

536
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:45,480
whose remarkable ascent...

537
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:49,400
..it may have happened

538
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,040
too quickly for him.

539
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:53,240
I think that was one of
the problems.

540
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,840
I suppose it's just such a cliche
that, doesn't everybody know

541
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:06,400
that money doesn't make you happy?

542
00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:11,360
Not here in America!

543
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:14,400
We haven't learned that lesson yet!

544
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:19,680
Did the spending continue,
did it increase?

545
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:20,880
Oh, yeah.

546
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,480
Increase, increase,
increase, increase.

547
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:25,800
But even with his wife, I would say,

548
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,840
"Don't you think that
they should save a little bit?"

549
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:32,720
"I know, but, you know...
He says that it's OK."

550
00:37:32,720 --> 00:37:35,320
And then, "I think he's a genius.
I think he can do it."

551
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,800
I'm like, "OK..."

552
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:39,680
So she believed in his magic, too?

553
00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:41,000
Yeah.

554
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:42,440
And, of course, why not?

555
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:44,160
When you see the houses,

556
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:46,280
the cars, the lifestyle...

557
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:47,880
Why not believe, you know?

558
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:53,560
It cost me 2.8 million

559
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:56,640
and I had $1 million mortgage.

560
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:59,720
My mortgage was 10,000 a month

561
00:37:59,720 --> 00:38:02,760
because I only owned
a third of its value.

562
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:08,840
And the cars, you add another 5,000.

563
00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:13,000
And then there was help,
the gardener and all of that,

564
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,160
maybe it's another five, you know.

565
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:17,920
How many staff did you have?
You had a gardener...

566
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,440
Yeah, but he did not come every day.
Just came once a week.

567
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:24,480
Did you have a pool boy?
Yeah, but that doesn't cost much.

568
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:27,200
Did you have a nanny
for the children? Yeah.

569
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:28,520
We had one,

570
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:31,160
and we had a maid,

571
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:32,800
so these were full-time peoples.

572
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:36,840
Cos my wife was a champion

573
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:40,240
of jumping when she was 16 and 15,

574
00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:42,560
so we bought a horse

575
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:44,640
and she had a coach.

576
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:49,760
We bought a pony for the kids, but
they were a little young for that,

577
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,240
you know,
they were a little scared of it.

578
00:38:52,240 --> 00:38:54,560
And then we bought a share
on a second horse,

579
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:58,200
that one was very good,
with a coach. Erm...

580
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:00,400
How much were the horses?

581
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:03,040
Well, one horse will cost 40,000.

582
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:04,680
The pony 7,000.

583
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:08,400
And then there's the upkeep
every month,

584
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:10,160
maybe it's 3,000.

585
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:14,240
So, this is all adding up, isn't it?

586
00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:16,920
Yeah, but it's still within
what I was making, you know.

587
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:43,880
In the autumn of 2000, Michel
moves his family back to the centre

588
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:45,520
of the art world in New York.

589
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:52,880
As you can see, this is absolute
iconic New York.

590
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:56,200
You're looking south
over the skyline

591
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,960
and also a little bit west
over Central Park.

592
00:40:03,240 --> 00:40:05,880
One of the big attractions
of this building for people

593
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:09,120
is that it has a swimming
pool, has a roof deck,

594
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:12,920
it has a gym, has a concierge 24/7.

595
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:15,560
And doormen, of course, 24/7...

596
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,000
So you feel very secure
in this building.

597
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:25,280
I was shocked. They were renting
an apartment that back then

598
00:40:25,280 --> 00:40:26,960
was $25,000 a month.

599
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:29,160
I remember thinking
that's really way too much

600
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:30,480
than you need to be spending.

601
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:32,640
I was surprised they brought
their horses with them.

602
00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:34,920
I was very shocked and impressed

603
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:36,760
by how large they were living.

604
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,960
They were taking weekend flights
to Martha's Vineyard, I think.

605
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:42,640
I mean, it was really over the top

606
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:45,080
for what I felt
it should have been at that point.

607
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:50,360
At the time they were renting
an apartment in New York,

608
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:52,960
I think that was like
$35,000 a month.

609
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:56,760
They had a big Mercedes
with a professional chauffeur,

610
00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:59,000
because it's annoying to park
in New York.

611
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:00,880
You cannot park, so, you know...

612
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:02,760
And so...

613
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:06,000
..from the outside,
everything looked fine.

614
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:09,000
Though there are people
who would call me and say,

615
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,280
"Is everything OK with Michel?

616
00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:14,920
"He looks strange, he's lost
weight, he looks very fidgety."

617
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,600
I know we're getting very close

618
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:19,360
to the drama point.

619
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:26,520
He was living, not just a high life,

620
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,520
he was living
an incredibly fast life.

621
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:34,440
He's living across the street
from Gianni Versace.

622
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:38,600
He apparently was taking private
planes to Martha's Vineyard

623
00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:41,000
or the Cape every weekend.

624
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:43,480
Those are serious, serious
outlays of cash...

625
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:49,440
..and maybe he was running, trying
to keep up with his lifestyle.

626
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:06,320
I knew that there were certain days
where he would just lose

627
00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:09,040
a vast fortune that he couldn't
afford to pay back,

628
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:13,200
but I came into my office and he was
sort of sitting there like this,

629
00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:15,240
holding his QuoTrek machine.

630
00:42:15,240 --> 00:42:18,320
Practically, the QuoTrek looked
like it was smoking

631
00:42:18,320 --> 00:42:20,720
from how devastating his day was.

632
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:24,800
He'd basically just lost
$1 million that day

633
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:27,440
just from bad investment choices.

634
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:31,280
So you can buy or sell at the right
time, every time, with QuoTrek.

635
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:33,840
Michel didn't have a clue what
he was doing in the options market,

636
00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:36,840
a couple of the brokerage houses
shut him down

637
00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:39,040
because they didn't
want liability charges,

638
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:41,480
dealing with somebody who
was so uninformed

639
00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:45,040
about what they were doing and
losing such a huge amount of money.

640
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,720
We were literally doing nothing
more than throwing dice.

641
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:54,440
How much was the debt
in the summer of 2000?

642
00:42:57,080 --> 00:42:59,520
It was less than...

643
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:01,360
..15.

644
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:03,560
Million? Yeah. Yeah!

645
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:10,040
I was just stressed out,
it was just too much,

646
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:12,920
between the socialising,
the entertaining.

647
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,560
You know, the hours I was
pulling out, you know,

648
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:20,240
getting up at 4:30 to do trading,

649
00:43:20,240 --> 00:43:23,080
you're always thinking about, er...

650
00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:24,680
..you know, your debts.

651
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:34,480
And what happened is like
with any gambler,

652
00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,120
he would take a position,
he would lose.

653
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,920
He would take a bigger position,
he would lose.

654
00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:41,800
He would take even a bigger position

655
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,400
and, at some point,
Michel ran out of money.

656
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:46,400
I don't know how quickly
or how much it was...

657
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:51,280
..but then he started getting
involved needing money

658
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,280
from outside to support this,

659
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:56,400
because he was of the belief that,

660
00:43:56,400 --> 00:44:00,840
"I know I can get it back
and I can repay my debts.

661
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:02,480
"All I need is more capital."

662
00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:06,960
I was observing like

663
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:09,360
a train crash in slow motion

664
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:12,000
because the level of debt...

665
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:16,200
..things became really crazy
because...

666
00:44:17,240 --> 00:44:21,640
..then he used the money of the
painting to play the market.

667
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,960
That's when he started
going to his colleagues,

668
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:40,600
his collectors and to Sotheby's...

669
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:44,000
..asking either for loans

670
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:46,560
or for consignment of artworks,

671
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:49,880
that he could then put
in the options market

672
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:53,440
and cover his losses and make
the money and get back on track.

673
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:06,480
In 2000, Michel crosses the line

674
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:09,480
and starts doing actual fraudulent
deals in the art world.

675
00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:29,800
Michel came in and we had
a big Picasso painting -

676
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:31,000
it was in the millions.

677
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,520
He said, "Oh, I have a client
for that." I said, "Great."

678
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,120
He said, "I want to take it to
a warehouse to show them."

679
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:37,560
That's often done in our business

680
00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:40,000
so that the client doesn't actually
come into our gallery.

681
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:42,240
He would take it to a warehouse,
show it at the warehouse,

682
00:45:42,240 --> 00:45:44,480
and then either sell it
or return it.

683
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:47,520
And he said, "I can get you
a $25,000 deposit for it."

684
00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:49,600
And I said, "That sounds fine."
This was Michel.

685
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:51,800
Of course,
that sounded totally fine.

686
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:54,520
And I went into Jim and Jim said,
"No, I don't think so."

687
00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:00,200
So, we didn't let him take
the paintings, and after Michel left

688
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:02,760
I went into Jim and I said,
"Why did you say that?"

689
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:04,720
Jim said,
"Something's not feeling right.

690
00:46:04,720 --> 00:46:07,000
"I don't feel
things are right with him."

691
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:08,600
I didn't sense it.

692
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:10,240
Jim Goodman sensed it,

693
00:46:10,240 --> 00:46:11,800
and thank God.

694
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:15,920
He came in

695
00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:18,760
and he had a transparency with him

696
00:46:18,760 --> 00:46:20,600
and he said this...

697
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:24,640
..painting could be for sale.

698
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:27,520
An early Monet painting,

699
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:30,760
Le Repos Dans Le Jardin, Argenteuil.

700
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:34,200
And he said,

701
00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:37,680
"It is at the Metropolitan Museum.

702
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,160
"And I need to put a deposit down."

703
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:46,960
So, Bill...

704
00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:51,360
..writes a cheque for $2.5 million,

705
00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:52,560
and...

706
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:55,080
..we don't think anything more.

707
00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:05,040
He called me and asked me
if I still had a work by Picasso

708
00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:08,480
that he remembered seeing
a couple of months before.

709
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:12,040
I said, yes, and he said, "I think
I might have somebody

710
00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:14,040
"who could be interested in it."

711
00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:23,000
We looked at the work together,
we agreed on a price,

712
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:24,840
he signed an agreement,

713
00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:27,040
we had the work released
to his shipper,

714
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:29,080
who took it to a warehouse
here in New York,

715
00:47:29,080 --> 00:47:31,280
where he planned to show it
the following week.

716
00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:34,520
How much was the painting worth?

717
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:36,920
About $2.5 million.

718
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:39,800
DRAMATIC MUSIC

719
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:50,320
The last deal that we made

720
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:54,640
in order to purchase
a couple of paintings by Picasso.

721
00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:01,360
We had a lunch
and hands were shaken,

722
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:04,400
and funds were forwarded.

723
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:09,480
Do you know roughly
how much that deal was worth?

724
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:12,720
I think we were into $3 million,

725
00:48:12,720 --> 00:48:14,800
maybe $3 to $4 million.

726
00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:23,600
I traded to get back losses,
and then I used other people's,

727
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:27,360
you know, loans, the proceeds,
I mean, er...

728
00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:31,880
..to try and make some money

729
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:33,640
and pay the loans off

730
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:35,640
like I did before.

731
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:39,200
Yeah, in my mind, I always thought
that I would pay them back.

732
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:44,760
One good trade,
and I would have made the money

733
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,440
and nobody would have known
what I did.

734
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:53,000
These are their American Express
bills.

735
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:56,040
Even though he's in dire straits,
financially,

736
00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:59,560
his spending is still through the
roof.

737
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:02,000
1,800 in Prada.

738
00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:06,000
$2,500 on bed linen

739
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:10,200
and more than $13,000 on a hotel
in Palm Beach.

740
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:16,760
$500 on children's clothes.

741
00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:22,200
Six weeks before he fled,

742
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:25,640
and he's spending nearly $4,000
in a watch shop.

743
00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:32,760
Same week, he spends $22,500
on a Steinway piano.

744
00:49:36,240 --> 00:49:38,880
This is the man who is going under,
financially,

745
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:41,120
but it doesn't seem to be
holding him back,

746
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:45,160
and still spending thousands
of dollars on his gym membership.

747
00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:49,440
Self-reassurance,

748
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:52,800
feeling that the good old days
are still the good old days.

749
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:55,560
I don't know, but it's absurd.

750
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:59,640
You bought a Steinway piano
for $22,500.

751
00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:02,680
Do you remember doing that? Yeah.
Why did you do that, Michel?

752
00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:06,120
Because I wanted the kids
to learn piano.

753
00:50:06,120 --> 00:50:10,400
The thing that's a bit contradictory
for me is that, on the one hand,

754
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:14,240
you're saying you wanted
to pay everybody back,

755
00:50:14,240 --> 00:50:19,080
at the same time you're spending
$22,500 on a piano,

756
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:22,680
$1,300 at Ralph Lauren,

757
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:26,440
$13,000 at the Palm Beach Hotel,
etc...

758
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:28,640
Yeah, it was a holiday.

759
00:50:28,640 --> 00:50:33,120
No, it's, er,
if you were 20 or 30 million,

760
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:36,560
it's not making any difference
if you spend 50,000 that month,

761
00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:39,000
especially with
an American Express card,

762
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:42,040
because you don't have to pay it.
You just pay the interest.

763
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:44,960
I suppose some people,
when they get into debt,

764
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:49,160
they do everything they can
to claw back every dime,

765
00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:51,200
but it sounds like
you sort of weren't doing it.

766
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:53,640
Well, the apartment was empty,
I had to furnish it,

767
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:57,120
because I did not have an office,
or a gallery,

768
00:50:57,120 --> 00:50:59,120
and we had clients coming in,

769
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:02,960
so you could not have an empty place
with just a sofa

770
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:04,720
and a couple of paintings.

771
00:51:04,720 --> 00:51:08,440
I noticed he had
that way of being able

772
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:11,840
to re-twist things in his mind

773
00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:16,560
that would follow a narrative
that would be good for him.

774
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:22,240
Do you think he had a guilty
conscience about what he was doing?

775
00:51:22,240 --> 00:51:24,720
You know, I think maybe not.

776
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:35,440
And then there came a time
where he wasn't returning my calls.

777
00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:37,480
I went to our legal department

778
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:39,560
and said,
"He's not returning my calls."

779
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:42,400
When that happens,
when somebody starts doing that,

780
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,040
you know that he has
other creditors than you,

781
00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:47,080
and then it's going to be
a race to the courthouse

782
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:50,360
to get what's called a lean
on his remaining assets,

783
00:51:50,360 --> 00:51:52,560
and you're going to have
to liquidate that person,

784
00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:54,080
or that person's assets,

785
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:57,200
and whoever gets to the courthouse
and sues first

786
00:51:57,200 --> 00:51:58,840
comes out ahead of the other guys,

787
00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:00,960
because it's time-stamped
when you do it.

788
00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:14,800
So, in January 2001,
when Sotheby's realised

789
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:18,640
Michel has defaulted
on the $10 million he owes them,

790
00:52:18,640 --> 00:52:22,360
it's them that call the cops
and blow the whole thing wide open.

791
00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:29,920
There was a story posted online
about Sotheby's filing suit

792
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:33,160
against him for the recovery of
some loans that were outstanding.

793
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:37,680
And, you know, that's when we began
to be concerned about his viability

794
00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:39,440
as a consignee.

795
00:52:41,720 --> 00:52:45,600
As each day went by, it became
clearer that we were not alone,

796
00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:48,200
that galleries
like Beyeler in Switzerland

797
00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:51,840
and Acquavella here in New York
and Paul Kantor in Beverly Hills,

798
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:54,480
that there were many of us
who were owed millions.

799
00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:01,400
This is the breakdown
of what the FBI know

800
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:03,960
to be Michel's fraudulent...

801
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:06,920
what the Americans
call wire transfers.

802
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:09,400
So you can see the names
of the artists and the amounts.

803
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:11,920
So we've got a Picasso - 200,000.

804
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:13,840
The Monet in the Met -

805
00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:16,600
someone sent him over a million
for that.

806
00:53:16,600 --> 00:53:18,640
Another five million for that.

807
00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:22,440
This is for another Picasso.

808
00:53:24,960 --> 00:53:27,720
A Dali - nearly three million.

809
00:53:27,720 --> 00:53:30,880
Chagall, Chagall, Pissarro.

810
00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:32,280
That's another Monet.

811
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:36,120
That's that Picasso again -
another 3.9 million.

812
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:40,800
And that's that Picasso again -
four million.

813
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:44,160
So selling the same painting
over and over again

814
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:45,800
for very large amounts of money.

815
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:52,480
This is the Picasso
you borrowed from Paul Gray.

816
00:53:52,480 --> 00:53:54,800
He gave it to you on consignment.

817
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:56,640
You didn't pay anything for it,

818
00:53:56,640 --> 00:54:00,320
and you told him that
you could sell it for 2.2 million...

819
00:54:00,320 --> 00:54:03,160
Yeah, that's right.
..and then, without his permission,

820
00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:06,400
you put it on a private plane
to Iowa,

821
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:09,240
where you sold it to a collector
for 4.5 million.

822
00:54:09,240 --> 00:54:11,080
It's completely false.

823
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,160
So when Paul Gray says that you took
the painting and never paid him,

824
00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:16,760
are you saying to me he's lying?

825
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:19,000
No, I never paid him.
You never paid him?

826
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:21,560
They invoiced me, so I owned it.

827
00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:25,000
You own it completely when it's...
When you pay for it?

828
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:27,880
Yeah, but I have an invoice for it,

829
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:32,400
and I may be able to...
to get hold of that.

830
00:54:32,400 --> 00:54:34,240
We're sort of splitting hairs,
aren't we?

831
00:54:34,240 --> 00:54:37,320
Cos you took a painting from him
worth 2.2 million

832
00:54:37,320 --> 00:54:39,400
and, whether or not
there was an invoice,

833
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:41,280
you never returned the painting.

834
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:42,960
So you stole a painting
worth 2.2 million.

835
00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:45,360
It's not stealing, when you steal...

836
00:54:45,360 --> 00:54:46,600
It's like a robbery.

837
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:49,040
It's not stealing. He invoiced me.

838
00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:50,760
There are many...

839
00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:55,360
..examples of galleries who buy
a picture, and they don't pay,

840
00:54:55,360 --> 00:54:58,000
or they pay half
if they have money problems.

841
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:02,600
That's not stealing.
Stealing is when you rob something.

842
00:55:02,600 --> 00:55:03,800
But if you take the painting

843
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:05,680
and you never pay for it,
that's stealing.

844
00:55:05,680 --> 00:55:08,600
No, it's not. You owe them money,
if you are invoiced.

845
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:11,920
So you... It happened.
I'm calling it stealing.

846
00:55:11,920 --> 00:55:15,280
You're saying you still owe him
2.2 million? Is that right?

847
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:19,760
Yeah, whatever the invoice says,
but he invoiced me for that picture.

848
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:26,440
He even got a cheque of 200,000
that bounced.

849
00:55:26,440 --> 00:55:30,240
So that's the proof in itself
that it was a sale.

850
00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:43,240
And then everybody starts telling me
about all these stories.

851
00:55:43,240 --> 00:55:45,520
And I was shocked, shocked!

852
00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:49,280
I said, "No, that can't be Michel -

853
00:55:49,280 --> 00:55:51,200
"not the Michel I know."

854
00:55:51,200 --> 00:55:53,400
I said, "It can't be."

855
00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:57,440
And it didn't take long, and I heard
about all the dealers and everybody,

856
00:55:57,440 --> 00:55:59,360
that this one's chasing him
for ten million,

857
00:55:59,360 --> 00:56:01,520
this one's chasing him
for three million,

858
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:03,560
he never paid this one on Picassos.

859
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:11,280
Everything broke loose.

860
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,880
People started saying, you know,
"So and so's lost money,

861
00:56:14,880 --> 00:56:16,400
"they're looking for Michel.

862
00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:18,200
"Anybody know where Michel is?"

863
00:56:19,320 --> 00:56:23,440
And then we realised that we were
not going to get our painting.

864
00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:30,120
So we lost $2.5 million,

865
00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:33,120
which in 2000 or 2001...

866
00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:35,080
..would have been
the equivalent to, what,

867
00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:36,680
ten million now,
eight million now?

868
00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:38,720
I mean, it was a lot of money.

869
00:56:47,080 --> 00:56:50,480
As well as selling Bill Beadleston
a half share in the Monet,

870
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:52,520
at the same time, you sold
that painting to a gallery

871
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:55,200
in Switzerland for five million

872
00:56:55,200 --> 00:56:59,480
and to an investor in LA
for another five million.

873
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:03,400
So three different people in total
gave you 12.5 million

874
00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:06,920
for that one painting,
which wasn't even for sale.

875
00:57:06,920 --> 00:57:10,040
Yeah, but don't forget,
these are all loans, you know.

876
00:57:10,040 --> 00:57:12,240
They're all loans
you haven't paid back.

877
00:57:12,240 --> 00:57:13,240
Exactly.

878
00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:17,160
This is why I'm saying to you,
Michel,

879
00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:20,400
that I'm not sure whether
you're being dishonest with me

880
00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:23,080
or whether you're being dishonest
with yourself,

881
00:57:23,080 --> 00:57:27,640
because to say, these are
all loans 18 years after the event,

882
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:32,360
when you've taken 12.5 million
from people and never paid them back

883
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:34,720
and have no means
of paying them back -

884
00:57:34,720 --> 00:57:36,120
that is not a loan.

885
00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:37,400
That is theft.

886
00:57:40,480 --> 00:57:41,880
Yeah, but, um...

887
00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:43,240
Yeah, I mean...

888
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:47,000
Yeah, they were loans at the time.

889
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:49,840
You asked me at the time,
and I did not know, 18 years later,

890
00:57:49,840 --> 00:57:51,840
I would not be able
to pay them back.

891
00:58:01,840 --> 00:58:05,280
He was a little delusional about it
for quite a while.

892
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:08,480
You know, they say that gamblers...

893
00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:11,760
..gamble until they lose,
not until they win.

894
00:58:11,760 --> 00:58:16,760
I think that's him also - he gambled
until he had lost everything

895
00:58:16,760 --> 00:58:18,880
and there was nothing left
to gamble.

896
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:30,680
They served papers at the apartment
building where we lived,

897
00:58:30,680 --> 00:58:36,120
and they were staying there in
limousines for hours, even at night.

898
00:58:36,120 --> 00:58:37,560
You know, we were followed.

899
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:38,960
So it spooked me.

900
00:58:40,640 --> 00:58:42,920
I went with the sheriff
to Michel's apartment,

901
00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:45,280
where I'd met him two years before.

902
00:58:45,280 --> 00:58:47,480
And we walked up to the door,

903
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:51,160
and there were like seven New York
Times piled up against the door

904
00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:52,840
from the delivery person.

905
00:58:52,840 --> 00:58:55,680
And I knew that that apartment
was empty.

906
00:58:55,680 --> 00:58:58,720
Up until the very end,
there was always a chance

907
00:58:58,720 --> 00:59:01,520
he was going to pull
a rabbit out of his hat. You know?

908
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:02,960
He had done it before.

909
00:59:02,960 --> 00:59:04,560
Never quite on that scale.

910
00:59:05,720 --> 00:59:07,440
And then there was
the final phone call

911
00:59:07,440 --> 00:59:10,440
where he just seemed
kind of sad and lost.

912
00:59:10,440 --> 00:59:12,520
I was like, "Oh, my God! Michel!"

913
00:59:12,520 --> 00:59:15,680
It's like seeing your parents cry
or something. It's like, "No..."

914
00:59:15,680 --> 00:59:17,760
And then that was it - he was gone.

915
00:59:21,160 --> 00:59:23,760
Was he the kind of person
who would do something as extreme

916
00:59:23,760 --> 00:59:25,680
as going on the run?

917
00:59:25,680 --> 00:59:27,320
Yeah, I think so, yes.

918
00:59:28,520 --> 00:59:30,240
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

919
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:31,800
There was like...

920
00:59:33,960 --> 00:59:35,480
You know, it was kind of like...

921
00:59:36,640 --> 00:59:39,800
..the end justified the means.

922
00:59:40,920 --> 00:59:43,760
Yes, there was
that extreme part of him.

923
00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:48,560
And then, you know, Richard told me,
"You're not getting paid."

924
00:59:48,560 --> 00:59:50,320
"So they left
a bunch of stuff behind.

925
00:59:50,320 --> 00:59:52,280
"If you see some shirt or something
you want,

926
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:54,480
"just grab it before it's seized."

927
00:59:56,320 --> 00:59:57,720
And did you? Yeah.

928
00:59:57,720 --> 00:59:59,840
I mean, you know,
I think I grabbed the TV.

929
00:59:59,840 --> 01:00:01,240
CAR HORNS BEEP

930
01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:09,760
MUSIC: Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien
by Edith Piaf

931
01:00:16,480 --> 01:00:18,040
And then the accountant called me

932
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:19,800
and was just like,
"Go look at the paper."

933
01:00:19,800 --> 01:00:21,640
And that's how I kind of saw
I had no job,

934
01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:25,240
I was looking at
the New York Post headline.

935
01:00:25,240 --> 01:00:28,440
You know, like,
"The biggest art swindler ever!"

936
01:00:28,440 --> 01:00:29,840
That's my boy!

937
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:31,800
MUSIC CONTINUES

938
01:01:29,840 --> 01:01:32,880
There was a story he went to Germany
cos his wife was German.

939
01:01:32,880 --> 01:01:37,360
We suspected
that he had moved to Israel.

940
01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:39,640
Unfortunately,
I imagine that he's in prison.

941
01:01:39,640 --> 01:01:42,200
And I still think
I see him sometimes. Do you?

942
01:01:42,200 --> 01:01:43,240
He could be around.

943
01:01:44,680 --> 01:01:46,280
He's pretty sneaky.

944
01:01:46,280 --> 01:01:48,280
And I don't know
where he is to this day,

945
01:01:48,280 --> 01:01:50,720
if he's in fact alive,
and I have no idea.

946
01:01:50,720 --> 01:01:52,560
I know there's a lot of people

947
01:01:52,560 --> 01:01:56,640
who are really angry, who probably
would like to have him killed.

948
01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:08,080
Were people very angry with him?
Oh! Angry? Angry?

949
01:02:08,080 --> 01:02:09,400
They were crazy!

950
01:02:09,400 --> 01:02:12,280
I mean, oh! They were doing this,
and, "I'm going to have him killed,"

951
01:02:12,280 --> 01:02:14,320
and stories that they hired hitmen
to kill him,

952
01:02:14,320 --> 01:02:17,320
they didn't care about the money -
they just wanted him dead.

953
01:02:17,320 --> 01:02:19,160
I heard crazy stories!

954
01:02:20,200 --> 01:02:23,360
I think everybody was in such shock

955
01:02:23,360 --> 01:02:25,840
that Michael Cohen,
or Michel Cohen,

956
01:02:25,840 --> 01:02:28,120
pulled off
or did anything like this.

957
01:02:28,120 --> 01:02:30,560
It was a shock to the art world.

958
01:02:33,680 --> 01:02:40,000
There are people who have
assets of 50 million to billions.

959
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:44,040
So it did not affect their lives,
but my life was affected.

960
01:02:45,600 --> 01:02:49,080
I feel bad,
but not as bad if you lose money

961
01:02:49,080 --> 01:02:52,360
for somebody who needs
to survive on it.

962
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:56,800
What was your reaction to that,
Susanna,

963
01:02:56,800 --> 01:02:58,600
to being swindled in that way?

964
01:02:58,600 --> 01:03:00,080
It was disgust.

965
01:03:00,080 --> 01:03:01,640
It was outrage.

966
01:03:02,840 --> 01:03:06,080
For us and for everybody else.

967
01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:11,760
There was no sense of remorse
on his part, because he'd gone.

968
01:03:18,720 --> 01:03:25,280
Did you ever consider staying and
allowing yourself to be arrested?

969
01:03:25,280 --> 01:03:27,360
Yeah, but when the lawyer told me...

970
01:03:28,480 --> 01:03:32,520
..in the States, it's five years per
count, so if you have 12 counts...

971
01:03:32,520 --> 01:03:35,360
You actually had 24 counts
in the end.

972
01:03:35,360 --> 01:03:38,000
Then it's five times 24.

973
01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:43,480
And, you know, maybe it will
have been five times 15 at the end.

974
01:03:43,480 --> 01:03:47,000
But any way you look at it,
it's like a death penalty.

975
01:03:47,000 --> 01:03:48,560
So...

976
01:03:48,560 --> 01:03:50,400
..I was...

977
01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:52,560
..49 years old then, I think.

978
01:03:53,840 --> 01:03:55,880
Yeah, 48 years old.

979
01:03:55,880 --> 01:03:58,520
So why should I wait for...

980
01:03:59,560 --> 01:04:02,800
..you know, a 20-year sentence
or a 15-year sentence?

981
01:04:02,800 --> 01:04:04,280
I did not kill anybody.

982
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:21,360
What was your reaction to the fact
that Michel went on the run

983
01:04:21,360 --> 01:04:23,080
rather than face the music?

984
01:04:24,440 --> 01:04:25,640
Coward!

985
01:04:26,640 --> 01:04:29,200
Coward, coward, coward.

986
01:04:40,320 --> 01:04:43,720
I was able to take $8,000.

987
01:04:51,160 --> 01:04:56,200
And I did not know where to go,
so I flew to Madrid, and I said,

988
01:04:56,200 --> 01:04:59,280
"Where should I go?" And I looked
at the departure board,

989
01:04:59,280 --> 01:05:03,520
and I saw Buenos Aires,
so I thought, "Yeah, maybe."

990
01:05:03,520 --> 01:05:06,960
And then the flight
was quite a few hours ahead.

991
01:05:06,960 --> 01:05:08,760
And then there was a flight...

992
01:05:10,000 --> 01:05:12,640
..not sooner, before...

993
01:05:12,640 --> 01:05:14,080
..to Rio.

994
01:05:14,080 --> 01:05:16,320
So I said, "I'll go to Rio.
That sounds great."

995
01:05:26,760 --> 01:05:30,120
So you just chose Rio at random,
just because it was the next flight?

996
01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:31,320
Exactly.

997
01:05:32,760 --> 01:05:34,400
Did you know anything about Rio?

998
01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:36,600
No, I'd never been to Brazil.

999
01:05:36,600 --> 01:05:39,240
Did you know anybody in Rio? No.

1000
01:05:39,240 --> 01:05:41,320
Did you speak Portuguese? No.

1001
01:05:41,320 --> 01:05:42,800
Another adventure!

1002
01:06:13,880 --> 01:06:18,440
I just focused on finding
a place and knowing my way around

1003
01:06:18,440 --> 01:06:21,080
and looking at the schools.

1004
01:06:21,080 --> 01:06:25,680
So I just focused on that,
like I was starting a new life.

1005
01:06:35,160 --> 01:06:37,120
Antonio, when you met Michel,

1006
01:06:37,120 --> 01:06:39,800
was he using his real name,
Michel Cohen?

1007
01:06:44,680 --> 01:06:46,400
Did Michel appear to have money?

1008
01:07:11,600 --> 01:07:14,400
Did you have any sense
of where the money was coming from?

1009
01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:33,200
Did you get a job in Rio?

1010
01:07:34,440 --> 01:07:39,880
I did find an activity with trading
after I raised a little bit

1011
01:07:39,880 --> 01:07:42,880
of money from friends and family.

1012
01:07:42,880 --> 01:07:45,880
And were you making any money?
Making, losing,

1013
01:07:45,880 --> 01:07:49,240
but overall there were losses,
you know.

1014
01:08:04,920 --> 01:08:08,760
In the middle of 2002,
we had another child,

1015
01:08:08,760 --> 01:08:12,640
and it was great, so you forget

1016
01:08:12,640 --> 01:08:15,840
your previous life in the States,
you know.

1017
01:08:15,840 --> 01:08:17,920
It was a happy moment.

1018
01:08:17,920 --> 01:08:21,560
But I got to live with him
just six months, you know.

1019
01:08:23,000 --> 01:08:24,760
And then what happened?

1020
01:08:24,760 --> 01:08:29,480
When I got on my way to work,
I got arrested on the street.

1021
01:08:45,360 --> 01:08:47,800
After two years of hiding
out on the beach,

1022
01:08:47,800 --> 01:08:50,800
Michel is arrested in Rio
in May 2003.

1023
01:10:17,440 --> 01:10:20,920
Did he seem surprised
to be arrested?

1024
01:10:50,040 --> 01:10:52,080
Which prison did they take you to?

1025
01:10:52,080 --> 01:10:54,000
It's an underground prison.

1026
01:10:54,000 --> 01:10:57,200
It's way out, outside Rio.

1027
01:10:59,800 --> 01:11:02,560
They take you down a dark...

1028
01:11:03,560 --> 01:11:07,120
..corridor underground
and down the stairs.

1029
01:11:07,120 --> 01:11:11,240
Everything is narrow
and you look on your right,

1030
01:11:11,240 --> 01:11:14,200
you have like a cage
with some people in the dark,

1031
01:11:14,200 --> 01:11:17,640
standing up in their underwear.

1032
01:11:19,920 --> 01:11:22,960
They look, you know, dangerous.

1033
01:11:24,520 --> 01:11:27,080
And I learnt these guys
how to play chess.

1034
01:11:27,080 --> 01:11:30,440
I taught at least
12 people how to play,

1035
01:11:30,440 --> 01:11:31,800
and they loved it.

1036
01:11:38,200 --> 01:11:44,680
At some point, my brother received
a phone call from Michel's wife,

1037
01:11:44,680 --> 01:11:48,440
who claimed that they were in Rio.

1038
01:11:49,600 --> 01:11:52,280
And she claimed that Michel
was in prison.

1039
01:11:53,840 --> 01:11:58,800
And she asked my brother for...
I believe it was $150,000...

1040
01:12:00,120 --> 01:12:01,600
..to get Michel out on bail.

1041
01:12:04,400 --> 01:12:06,000
My brother said no.

1042
01:12:08,680 --> 01:12:10,880
I could not take it for much longer.

1043
01:12:10,880 --> 01:12:12,680
You know, something had to happen.

1044
01:12:33,920 --> 01:12:37,920
I had a flash one night
before I escaped.

1045
01:12:37,920 --> 01:12:40,160
You know, how I could escape.

1046
01:12:40,160 --> 01:12:43,000
It came to me, you know,
before I went to sleep.

1047
01:12:44,240 --> 01:12:48,840
And I asked for a few days
to go to a hospital,

1048
01:12:48,840 --> 01:12:51,200
and the ambulance was broken.

1049
01:13:11,240 --> 01:13:14,880
I sit in the back,
and the guards are in front.

1050
01:13:14,880 --> 01:13:16,160
They have two guns -

1051
01:13:16,160 --> 01:13:19,200
one between their legs
and one on their side.

1052
01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:24,640
We got into a one-way street
that was very crowded.

1053
01:13:24,640 --> 01:13:28,880
For me, it was the sign
to get out of the car and run.

1054
01:13:46,000 --> 01:13:50,160
I ran really fast -
I mean, so fast, you know.

1055
01:13:50,160 --> 01:13:53,680
After a few hundred metres, I
thought I would have a heart attack.

1056
01:13:53,680 --> 01:13:55,400
I just could not run any more.

1057
01:13:56,760 --> 01:14:02,840
I saw a taxi. I had him drop me off
at a shopping mall not far.

1058
01:14:04,640 --> 01:14:08,440
So I bought a baseball cap
and some cheap sunglasses.

1059
01:14:20,600 --> 01:14:24,160
Having escaped from prison,
Michel vanishes without a trace

1060
01:14:24,160 --> 01:14:27,440
and leaves his wife and children
to fend for themselves in Rio.

1061
01:14:31,720 --> 01:14:36,080
INAUDIBLE

1062
01:14:36,080 --> 01:14:39,520
SINGING

1063
01:14:51,480 --> 01:14:55,240
I went into
an Evangelist-type church,

1064
01:14:55,240 --> 01:14:59,280
and they helped me
find a place to stay.

1065
01:14:59,280 --> 01:15:01,200
They did not know my story,

1066
01:15:01,200 --> 01:15:05,160
but they knew I needed to
have a place somewhere

1067
01:15:05,160 --> 01:15:08,120
and find a way out of Brazil.

1068
01:15:25,960 --> 01:15:27,920
I knew the only way out,

1069
01:15:27,920 --> 01:15:31,120
since I had no passport and no IDs,

1070
01:15:31,120 --> 01:15:37,040
was to somehow cross the Amazon
and get on the other side

1071
01:15:37,040 --> 01:15:39,960
to Guiana,
which is French territory.

1072
01:15:43,160 --> 01:15:49,080
You take a boat on the Amazon,
and it takes...

1073
01:15:49,080 --> 01:15:50,600
..two days and one night.

1074
01:15:54,680 --> 01:15:56,680
You can see at night,

1075
01:15:56,680 --> 01:15:59,840
you know, these crocodiles,
which are quite nice.

1076
01:16:01,800 --> 01:16:05,040
And then you have to cross the river
on a boat.

1077
01:16:06,360 --> 01:16:09,000
Then I could see the French flag,
and I was there,

1078
01:16:09,000 --> 01:16:11,160
so that was a great feeling.

1079
01:16:13,840 --> 01:16:18,000
He spent about six weeks
travelling across Brazil,

1080
01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:20,480
crossing the Amazon
into French Guiana,

1081
01:16:20,480 --> 01:16:23,120
where he arrived in January 2004.

1082
01:16:24,960 --> 01:16:28,200
And then, in August of that year,

1083
01:16:28,200 --> 01:16:30,480
Michel flew back to France.

1084
01:16:43,440 --> 01:16:51,400
MUSIC: Ne Me Quitte Pas
by Jacques Brel

1085
01:17:00,560 --> 01:17:05,400
I had a distant cousin who
is married to an Orthodox Jew.

1086
01:17:08,280 --> 01:17:12,560
A man I met there
let me stay at his office.

1087
01:17:12,560 --> 01:17:15,400
And I stayed there
a couple of years almost.

1088
01:17:28,800 --> 01:17:31,480
After he left Brazil,
would he call you?

1089
01:17:31,480 --> 01:17:32,680
Yes.

1090
01:17:32,680 --> 01:17:38,960
We talked a few times, and he was
mostly out of money all the time.

1091
01:17:38,960 --> 01:17:44,520
So he would borrow money...
"Borrow" - ask me for money

1092
01:17:44,520 --> 01:17:48,920
to help him.
So I would send, you know...

1093
01:17:48,920 --> 01:17:54,200
At first, I would send like $500
or $1,000 once in a while,

1094
01:17:54,200 --> 01:17:59,880
but I could not really keep
doing that too long. So...

1095
01:17:59,880 --> 01:18:03,720
Sometimes, I had to tell him, "You
know, I have bills to pay myself,

1096
01:18:03,720 --> 01:18:05,600
"so we cannot keep doing this."

1097
01:18:09,840 --> 01:18:14,520
When I ran out of money, I had times
where I did not eat, you know.

1098
01:18:14,520 --> 01:18:17,480
Once it happened four days in a row.

1099
01:18:17,480 --> 01:18:21,680
So I just had hot water and sugar,
but then I could not sleep

1100
01:18:21,680 --> 01:18:25,600
because, when you have
too much sugar, you just...

1101
01:18:25,600 --> 01:18:29,120
..you know, you can feel your pulse
in your head.

1102
01:18:29,120 --> 01:18:32,240
You know, it's a very
strange feeling. It's awful.

1103
01:18:33,800 --> 01:18:35,800
I think he wanted to go
back into the market.

1104
01:18:35,800 --> 01:18:38,440
It was a total obsession.

1105
01:18:38,440 --> 01:18:41,760
That's what he wanted to do -
day trading.

1106
01:18:41,760 --> 01:18:44,920
To me, it felt like a drug addict.

1107
01:18:44,920 --> 01:18:47,400
He had to have it, no matter what.

1108
01:18:49,840 --> 01:18:51,760
Orthodox Jews - they helped me.

1109
01:18:51,760 --> 01:18:55,320
One of them,
his father was very wealthy,

1110
01:18:55,320 --> 01:18:57,640
so they invested some money with me.

1111
01:18:57,640 --> 01:19:01,720
I mean, I think we started
with 70,000 euros.

1112
01:19:01,720 --> 01:19:04,240
So with that,
I did quite well for...

1113
01:19:05,320 --> 01:19:08,520
..not long.
Maybe four or five months.

1114
01:19:09,560 --> 01:19:12,360
But at the end,
he lost his principal.

1115
01:19:12,360 --> 01:19:14,040
So he lost the lot?

1116
01:19:14,040 --> 01:19:15,800
Yeah.

1117
01:19:15,800 --> 01:19:18,160
I could not stay in that office
any more.

1118
01:19:24,200 --> 01:19:27,240
At this point,
Michel hits rock-bottom

1119
01:19:27,240 --> 01:19:30,080
and finds himself homeless
on the streets of Paris.

1120
01:19:33,320 --> 01:19:34,440
I never...

1121
01:19:35,440 --> 01:19:38,000
..you know, felt so low.

1122
01:19:38,000 --> 01:19:40,800
Did you blame yourself
for the situation you were in?

1123
01:19:44,240 --> 01:19:46,280
It's... I don't know.

1124
01:19:46,280 --> 01:19:50,800
I tried to focus on the future

1125
01:19:50,800 --> 01:19:55,080
and not dwell on the past,
because it's not productive.

1126
01:19:55,080 --> 01:19:59,680
I mean, there are so many things
I could have done or not done,

1127
01:19:59,680 --> 01:20:01,240
mostly not done.

1128
01:20:02,960 --> 01:20:07,800
It's not in my mentality
to have regrets.

1129
01:20:15,160 --> 01:20:17,600
After five years
of not seeing his family,

1130
01:20:17,600 --> 01:20:21,120
Michel is finally reunited
with his wife and three children

1131
01:20:21,120 --> 01:20:23,800
when they fly back from Rio
to join him.

1132
01:20:27,920 --> 01:20:29,960
Seeing my children was...

1133
01:20:31,000 --> 01:20:32,800
..you know, a very intense...

1134
01:20:33,960 --> 01:20:38,720
..moment. And presumably your
youngest child had been a baby?

1135
01:20:38,720 --> 01:20:43,440
Yeah, he was looking at me
like, who am I?

1136
01:20:45,200 --> 01:20:47,200
His older brother -

1137
01:20:47,200 --> 01:20:49,240
I think he was standing -
told him, "That's...

1138
01:20:50,680 --> 01:20:51,720
"..Pappy."

1139
01:21:43,160 --> 01:21:45,920
Describe a typical day for you now.

1140
01:21:47,760 --> 01:21:48,760
Well, now...

1141
01:21:50,400 --> 01:21:52,640
..I take my son to school...

1142
01:21:53,760 --> 01:21:55,120
..at 7.30.

1143
01:21:56,400 --> 01:21:58,560
How old is your youngest child now?

1144
01:21:58,560 --> 01:21:59,960
He's 16 now.

1145
01:22:01,200 --> 01:22:05,200
OK, so you take him to school
in the morning, and then?

1146
01:22:05,200 --> 01:22:08,560
And I take my wife
to the train station.

1147
01:22:08,560 --> 01:22:10,760
I take the dog for a walk.

1148
01:22:11,960 --> 01:22:14,160
And then I do the laundry.

1149
01:22:18,240 --> 01:22:20,720
And what do you do for money?

1150
01:22:23,920 --> 01:22:26,120
I don't do anything.

1151
01:22:26,120 --> 01:22:27,800
Are you on welfare?

1152
01:22:27,800 --> 01:22:29,440
Yeah, I am, yeah.

1153
01:22:32,120 --> 01:22:34,000
And do you have friends?

1154
01:22:34,000 --> 01:22:35,040
No.

1155
01:22:36,400 --> 01:22:40,160
I have my kids, and I really...

1156
01:22:40,160 --> 01:22:41,800
..don't feel a need for it.

1157
01:22:43,000 --> 01:22:45,040
I don't socialise at all, you know.

1158
01:22:50,560 --> 01:22:53,040
Do you still
think much about the past?

1159
01:22:53,040 --> 01:22:55,640
Do you talk to anyone
about the past?

1160
01:22:55,640 --> 01:22:56,600
No.

1161
01:22:58,440 --> 01:23:00,400
I mean...

1162
01:23:00,400 --> 01:23:01,520
No.

1163
01:23:04,000 --> 01:23:05,960
I don't talk to people.

1164
01:23:11,880 --> 01:23:14,200
Do you still stay in touch
with Michel?

1165
01:23:14,200 --> 01:23:16,600
No, I haven't talked to him
in a long time.

1166
01:23:16,600 --> 01:23:17,960
Come in.

1167
01:23:19,120 --> 01:23:21,240
At some point,
I got a little disgusted

1168
01:23:21,240 --> 01:23:23,160
that the only conversation
we could have

1169
01:23:23,160 --> 01:23:25,040
was about me sending him money.

1170
01:23:49,480 --> 01:23:52,520
What would you like the ending
to be?

1171
01:23:52,520 --> 01:23:56,240
I'd like him to be living in
the six-by-six-foot cell with bars.

1172
01:23:56,240 --> 01:23:58,520
I would like to have gotten
our money back.

1173
01:23:58,520 --> 01:24:00,640
Well, I would like him
to be in jail.

1174
01:24:02,120 --> 01:24:06,240
What was the consequence for you
and for the Beadleston Gallery?

1175
01:24:06,240 --> 01:24:09,960
Billy became so disillusioned,
he just gave up.

1176
01:24:10,960 --> 01:24:14,640
He said he didn't want to be
in that business any more.

1177
01:24:14,640 --> 01:24:17,480
And so he closed the gallery? Mm.

1178
01:24:17,480 --> 01:24:18,920
And you lost your job?

1179
01:24:18,920 --> 01:24:20,200
I lost my job.

1180
01:24:23,000 --> 01:24:26,640
Do you know what happened
to Bill Beadleston? No.

1181
01:24:26,640 --> 01:24:32,280
Did you know that he was
so demoralised by that theft...

1182
01:24:32,280 --> 01:24:33,760
..that he closed his gallery

1183
01:24:33,760 --> 01:24:36,800
and everyone who worked there
lost their job? No.

1184
01:24:38,640 --> 01:24:41,240
Cos I always thought of him
as a very...

1185
01:24:42,280 --> 01:24:46,560
..wealthy man and I thought he was
doing so well with his artists.

1186
01:24:46,560 --> 01:24:49,360
I think it was the betrayal
that destroyed him.

1187
01:24:51,560 --> 01:24:54,000
Really? I'm sorry.

1188
01:24:54,000 --> 01:25:01,960
MUSIC: Yesterday, When I Was Young
by Charles Aznavour

1189
01:25:14,000 --> 01:25:17,240
because I don't think
you go from one day to another,

1190
01:25:17,240 --> 01:25:20,040
from one day, you're good,
and, the next day, you're bad.

1191
01:25:20,040 --> 01:25:22,640
And he was very methodical

1192
01:25:22,640 --> 01:25:25,120
about how he was doing these things.

1193
01:25:25,120 --> 01:25:27,160
This was not just fly by night.

1194
01:25:27,160 --> 01:25:31,240
He must have been thinking
about these things for a long time.

1195
01:25:31,240 --> 01:25:33,280
You know, they were over months.

1196
01:25:33,280 --> 01:25:36,080
I don't think
you can be a good person

1197
01:25:36,080 --> 01:25:37,880
to be thinking those thoughts.

1198
01:25:40,120 --> 01:25:42,200
People got hurt, financially.

1199
01:25:43,360 --> 01:25:46,280
It was a fraction
of what they owned,

1200
01:25:46,280 --> 01:25:49,600
but they lost millions of dollars,
and they have a right to be angry.

1201
01:25:49,600 --> 01:25:53,400
But it is my opinion that Michel
was not somebody

1202
01:25:53,400 --> 01:25:58,040
who put together some grand scheme
to defraud these people.

1203
01:25:59,080 --> 01:26:01,520
The outcome for him
was far more serious

1204
01:26:01,520 --> 01:26:03,960
than it was
for the people who lost money.

1205
01:26:05,480 --> 01:26:07,800
Michel lost everything.

1206
01:26:21,960 --> 01:26:26,640
He was not a conman
in the beginning - never ever.

1207
01:26:28,400 --> 01:26:32,960
He was one of the most accomplished
salespeople I've ever seen.

1208
01:26:43,320 --> 01:26:45,800
I knew what I was doing was wrong,

1209
01:26:45,800 --> 01:26:48,840
you know, and I was hoping
it doesn't come out,

1210
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:51,640
and I'd just pay it back
with interest,

1211
01:26:51,640 --> 01:26:54,320
and I'd start from scratch again.

1212
01:26:55,680 --> 01:26:59,360
It was, you know,
a nightmarish time.

1213
01:27:01,120 --> 01:27:03,880
I had a good, peaceful life,

1214
01:27:03,880 --> 01:27:07,440
and I got mixed up
with something crazy.

1215
01:27:10,720 --> 01:27:12,600
It's like total madness, you know.

1216
01:27:21,280 --> 01:27:24,120
There's always the possibility he's
going to get caught and go to jail.

1217
01:27:24,120 --> 01:27:26,200
It doesn't matter how old you are.

1218
01:27:26,200 --> 01:27:29,280
Eventually, eventually,
if you're going to dance,

1219
01:27:29,280 --> 01:27:32,480
you've got to pay for it.
And eventually, something comes out.

1220
01:27:35,840 --> 01:27:38,160
Does the FBI know where you are now?

1221
01:27:41,240 --> 01:27:42,920
I don't know. I don't talk to them.

1222
01:27:44,560 --> 01:27:48,760
But I think, if they do,
they know they can't extradite.