Tucked off Commodore Plaza in the heart of Coconut Grove, a vibrant, color-soaked art gallery run by Leslie “Les” Roberts brands itself as a “globally recognized institution blending the timeless works of Old Masters” with high-end contemporary art.
Miami Fine Art Gallery, as it’s called, appears to be thriving: plenty of foot traffic on a recent Saturday afternoon, a steady stream of glowing media reports in industry publications, and social media posts showing smiling customers, a growing and grateful cast of artists, a DJ at an in-gallery soiree, and a group of City of Miami Police officers posing wide-eyed in front of Andy Warhol’s iconic Marilyn Monroe silkscreen prints.
But behind the image of a successful entrepreneur – a “visionary” of the art world, as one recent press release describes him – Roberts is attracting a far less flattering form of attention: mounting allegations that he’s swindled millions of dollars from wealthy, very unsuspecting, art collectors.
Over the past six years a string of lawsuits has alleged that Roberts sold his clients forged works by Warhol and the popular French street artist Invader and, in other instances, failed to deliver high-priced pieces after receiving customers’ payments.
The first of the lawsuits arrived in Miami-Dade County’s court system while Roberts was still on supervised release from a 2014 felony case in which he was charged and pleaded guilty to a similar crime: dealing in fake art. Prosecutors accused him of selling forged artworks and defrauding consignment clients by swapping their genuine pieces with counterfeits.
Several customers who say they were deceived by Roberts in recent years claim they had no knowledge, at the time of their purchases, of the prior art fraud charges.
Indeed, details of Roberts’ legal woes are not always easy to find. While news articles documenting Robert’s past criminal case and the civil claims now pending against him can be found online, those reports are overwhelmed by a cascade of more recent promotional articles and syndicated marketing materials uniformly flattering to Roberts.
One Artnet article from last June, which features a Q&A interview with Roberts about the Miami art scene, quotes him saying that his client relationships are “built on trust and satisfaction” that contribute to his gallery’s “enduring legacy in the art world.”
Other recent articles and reports are similarly flattering, helping the long-time gallery owner maintain a glowing online presence.
In a recent interview with the Spotlight, Roberts says he has put his past behind him and is working hard to rebuild his reputation in the Miami art community and beyond. The former clients taking him to court, he contends, are using him as a scapegoat for deals that were not entirely under his control.
“What’s going on is not fair,” Roberts says. “They are digging up my past and using it against me.”
Collector Claims “Street Art” Scam
The latest case against Roberts was filed by Nicholas Bridger, a British national who claims Roberts received payment for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of art but failed to deliver the works.
In a lawsuit filed last month, Bridger says that in 2017 he paid Roberts’ now-defunct gallery in Coconut Grove, VIA Art, $300,000 toward the purchase of dozens of pieces attributed to the world-famous British street artist Banksy.
None of the pieces were delivered, the lawsuit contends, and Roberts refunded only $24,000.
Court records show that around the time of the transaction, Roberts’ 22-month prison sentence in the 2014 art-fraud case had just come to a close.
Sitting at his desk at the rear of Miami Fine Art Gallery, as patrons marvel at a shiny, towering Richard Orlinski statue of a chest-pounding gorilla near the entrance, Roberts explains that he had good reason to withhold Bridger’s shipment. He says Bridger’s employer at the time – the holder of a credit card Bridger used to buy the items – disputed the charges.
“I can’t deliver the products if the payment is in dispute,” says Roberts, wearing his signature jet-black suit and thick-rimmed glasses. Such key details, he complains, have been omitted from the lawsuit against him.
Two years after the Banksy dispute, Bridger ran into another conflict with Roberts.
According to the filing, in 2019 Bridger paid Roberts $55,000 for three artworks by the French street artist Invader, who is known for his retro, video-game-themed tiles, as well as a purported limited edition print by the renowned English painter David Hockney.
Mirroring other customers’ allegations, Bridger says Roberts enticed him with assurances that he’d be securing the works at a discount price. Bridger also claims that the gallery owner preyed on him in a vulnerable state.
“Roberts became aware that Bridger had lost his toddler-aged daughter in 2018,” the lawsuit alleges. “He took advantage of Bridger’s grief by soliciting him to purchase artworks by Invader in emails starting from July 19, 2019, and indicated in an email dated July 26, 2019 that he could get Bridger an original for a great price.”
Bridger claims in the lawsuit that in 2022 he learned that the three Invader artworks he purchased from Roberts were forgeries and that the letter of authenticity for the pieces was a “scam.”
Between what he claims were undelivered Banksy works and the worthless forgeries, Bridger alleges he has suffered more than $447,000 in damages.
In a recent interview, Roberts denied all of Bridger’s central allegations.
He says that the Invader pieces had been produced by a Florida-based “authorized representative” of the artist, but that his efforts to resolve the misunderstanding of their provenance have been ignored.
“I’ve had to be squeaky clean since the 2014 case,” Roberts says. “I offered to refund Bridger for the Invader works, but he hasn’t returned them.”
In 2023 Roberts filed for bankruptcy protection, listing $837,000 in liabilities and about $1.1 million in liquid assets linked to Miami Fine Art Gallery, $24,000 in investments and a few thousand dollars in checking accounts. Also listed was Roberts’ 2019 Bentley Bentayga, valued at $140,000.
In January, the judge dismissed the bankruptcy filing, citing Roberts’ alleged failure to comply with the court-approved repayment plan.
Family Says Imposter Posed as Andy Warhol Foundation
Bridger’s case is not the only civil fraud claim against Roberts and his galleries.
In August 2024, Miami real estate investor Richard Perlman, his wife Judy and son Matthew filed a complaint, first reported by the New York Times, accusing Roberts of an elaborate scheme to defraud them of millions of dollars by selling them counterfeit pieces by pop art icon Andy Warhol.
One day in February 2023, while shopping in the Grove, Richard and Matthew Perlman wandered into Miami Fine Art Gallery. They were impressed by the gallery’s prominent location, “large physical footprint,” and extensive modern art collection, their lawsuit contends.
“My clients had no idea about Roberts’ past,” the Perlmans’ attorney, Luke Nikas, tells the Spotlight. “They visited his gallery in Miami and developed a business relationship. The Perlmans trusted his expertise – what happened was nothing short of a betrayal.”
The Perlmans are demanding $18 million from Roberts and Miami Fine Art Gallery based on a Florida statute allowing for triple damages against civil defendants accused of profiting off criminal activity.
The family alleges that over a period of several months in early 2023, Roberts built a rapport with them, telling them that he had an inside connection at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, a New-York based foundation set up under Warhol’s will.
According to the Perlmans’ lawsuit, Roberts provided to them a contact – purportedly representing the Warhol Foundation – who could verify the authenticity of artwork they intended to purchase. The Perlmans say they communicated with the contact via email, using the domain “andywarholfoundation.co” rather than the foundation’s real domain name: warholfoundation.org.
The Perlmans allege that they later learned that the contact was an impersonator, with no actual ties to the Warhol Foundation, who led them to believe that they were receiving exclusive deals on rare “test prints.” They were also led to believe that their purchases were helping the foundation fund an art program to support emerging artists.
One 2023 email offered the Perlmans the “first right to purchase” a rare Warhol canvas of Queen Elizabeth, for $82,000. A subsequent email in 2024 teased “exceptional pricing” on eight Warhol works for a total of $515,000.
The Perlmans sent their purchase money for dozens of works to Miami Fine Art Gallery under a joint venture with Roberts, according to the lawsuit.
The Perlmans discovered something was amiss, they say, in December 2024 when Christie’s auction house inspected some of the works for potential resale, and their experts expressed doubts about the pieces’ authenticity.
After the Perlmans raised concerns, Roberts dispatched two appraisers – supposedly from the prestigious London-based Phillips auction house – to the family’s home to verify the Warhol pieces’ authenticity, according to the lawsuit.
But the Perlmans allege that they later discovered the duo had given them fake business cards and were not employed by Phillips.
“He went to great lengths to cover up the fraud,” attorney Nikas says. “This is exactly the kind of art dealer that should be held accountable.”
Roberts maintains he did nothing wrong, telling the Spotlight he did proper due diligence while assisting the Perlmans in their purchases and enlisting reputable suppliers, including prominent auction houses and dealers. A lengthy appraisal report has confirmed the value of many of the Perlmans’ purchases, he says.
Roberts says that while the vast majority of works the Perlmans acquired were authentic, some, from a foreign dealer, appeared suspicious – a concern that he claims to have shared with Matthew Perlman.
Those were the items that were flagged by Christie’s, Roberts contends, leading to the family’s groundless assertion that all of their Warhol purchases were fakes.
Either way, Roberts says he’s eager to make the Perlmans whole. “I’ve offered to help recoup their funds but it will take time,” he says. “[But] I can’t sell millions of dollars of art in one week.”
As for the alleged fake email account and exchanges with the Warhol Foundation, Roberts maintains he had nothing to do with them – and that a third-party supplier may have been behind the ruse.
The Perlmans’ complaint and Bridger’s lawsuit are pending in Miami-Dade County Court.
A third lawsuit, filed by Eve Marie Storm Johnson in 2019, named Roberts, his wife Silvia Roberts, the VIA gallery, and the now-closed Grove Fine Art gallery, just a few doors down on Commodore Plaza, as defendants.
Johnson claims that the defendants failed to deliver at least 10 artworks that she paid for in full in 2017. The Nevada businesswoman, who’d been buying from Roberts over six years beginning in 2012, says she’s out roughly $270,000.
Records show Silvia Roberts has tried to remove herself from the case, which is still pending, arguing she was not involved in the sales.
According to her complaint, Johnson began authenticating the art she acquired from Roberts after learning in 2018 of his earlier forgery charges.
“Johnson now has reason to believe that some to all of the pieces purchased are unauthenticated and/or forgeries,” her lawsuit contends.
Roberts’ history of legal troubles stretches much farther back than the recent allegations of art fraud.
In the mid-1980s, Roberts was charged with defrauding his uncle out of millions of dollars while working as a broker for Merrill Lynch. An archival New York Times story chronicles the case, Roberts’ upbringing in a Miami suburb, and the tragedy he endured when his mother fatally shot his father when Roberts was just 13 years old.
