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Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz
Spoutz lecturing at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland in 2013
Born
Eric Ian Spoutz

(1983-08-03) August 3, 1983 (age 41)
Mount Clemens, Michigan, U.S.
EducationFort Hays State University,Rutgers University
Occupation(s)Art dealer; Historian
Spouse(s)Lynsie Leinenger (married 2024); Natasha Gavroski (divorced; married 2012-2018)
RelativesRosemary Hornak (mother); Ian Hornak (uncle); Julius Rosenthal Wolf (uncle)
Websitewww.ericspoutz.com

Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz (born August 3, 1983) is an American art dealer,[1][2] historian[3] and museum curator.[1][2] Spoutz has owned art galleries in Detroit, Michigan,[1][2] Cape Coral, Florida,[4] Palm Beach, Florida, and Los Angeles, California.[5]

Early life and family

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Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan on August 3, 1983, to Carl Steven Spoutz, a real estate developer and Rosemary Hornak, a visual artist.[6] Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz's maternal uncle and namesake[7] was the founding Hyperrealist and Photorealist visual artist, Ian Hornak.[1][2] Ian Hornak's life partner was Julius Rosenthal Wolf,[8][9] who was a prominent American casting director, producer, theatrical agent,[9] art collector, art dealer, and the vice president of General Amusement Corporation, then the second largest talent management agency in the world.[10][11] During the 1950s and 1960s, Wolf had been the assistant director of Edith Halpert's Downtown Gallery in New York City where he became a champion of American Modernism in the visual arts. Via the bloodline of his paternal grandmother, Hornak-Spoutz is the eleventh-generation descendent of Mayflower passenger, Francis Cooke (1583-1663). He is also the thirteenth-generation descendant of captain John Marchant (1540-1592), and the tenth-generation descendant of Massasoit Sachem (1580-1661).[10]

Hornak-Spoutz's parents divorced in 1993 when he was nine years old. Following his parents divorce Hornak-Spoutz was raised by his mother, his paternal grandparents and his uncle, Ian Hornak. During the school year he lived in Mount Clemens, Michigan and many summers, and holidays Hornak-Spoutz spent with Ian Hornak at his home and studio in East Hampton, New York and at his home on the Upper-East Side of Manhattan in New York City.[2]

Through his early exposure to the art world via Ian Hornak in New York, Hornak-Spoutz took an interest in art and became his uncle's studio manager in East Hampton at age 16.[2] Elmer Walter Spoutz, Hornak-Spoutz's paternal grandfather who was a prominent Midwestern real estate developer and businessman, died when Hornak-Spoutz was eighteen in 2002 and he became the co-trustee of his grandfather's estate.[2] Later in 2002 when Hornak-Spoutz was nineteen, his uncle Ian Hornak died and Spoutz became the executor of his estate.[2]

Education

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Hornak-Spoutz graduated from Cardinal Mooney Catholic College Preparatory School in 2001.[1][2] He graduated with a Bachelor of General Studies degree with concentrations in General Business and Historical Studies from Fort Hays State University.[12] As of 2022, he was a graduate student at Rutgers University where he was pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Creative Arts and Literature.[13]

Career

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In 2003, Hornak-Spoutz opened the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in the Fisher Building in Detroit, Michigan when he was nineteen years old, which specialized in Photorealist and Hyperrealist artwork.[1][2] One of the early exhibitions of the gallery was, "Lowell Nesbitt: A Retrospective" there in 2004, which was the largest display of the artist's artwork since the artist's death in 1993.[14] Hornak-Spoutz moved to Palm Beach, Florida where he lived in a beachfront penthouse.

Between 2007 and 2017, Hornak-Spoutz placed artwork by many artists into the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art, the Smithsonian Libraries, the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, the Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections Division, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the National Hellenic Museum, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, the Florida State Capitol, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Dartmouth College's Rauner Special Collections Library, the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, The George Washington University Art Galleries, The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, the Forest Lawn Museum, the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, the Flint Institute of Arts, the Boston Children's Hospital, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Detroit Historical Museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.[15][1][2] Hornak-Spoutz also curated traveling museum exhibitions throughout the United States including an exhibition at Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C. that was on display during Barack Obama's 2013 Presidential Inauguration sponsored by Ben Bernanke,[1][2][3] the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts,[16] the Kinsey Institute,[17] and the Anton Art Center.[18]

During the City of Detroit bankruptcy, which up until that time was the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history, Hornak-Spoutz was a media commentator for multiple media outlets, including The Detroit News, at various times valuing the Detroit Institute of Arts permanent collection[19] and public art owned by the City of Detroit including Marshall Fredericks sculpture, Spirit of Detroit, and the Robert Graham sculpture, Monument to Joe Louis,[20] all of which was then a point of global controversy because of its potential susceptibility to liquidation for payment to the City's creditors.

In 2013 Hornak-Spoutz opened Gallery 928 at The Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village in Cape Coral, Florida where he exhibited the artwork of contemporary artists and masterworks by Andy Warhol, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and others, at one time reportedly having $20,000,000 USD worth of artwork on display.[4][21] The gallery closed in 2014 following the suicide of Hornak-Spoutz's business partner, Theodore Eager in the gallery, and Hornak-Spoutz moved to a penthouse in the Mid-Wilshire District in Los Angeles, California where he opened an online dealership for the sale of blue chip artwork.[6]

Hornak-Spoutz also volunteered as the curator for The Heidelberg Project in Detroit, Michigan, The Connecticut Cancer Foundation in Old Saybrook, Connecticut and became the curator and the global commercial representative for the estate of Jack Mitchell, who was the longest serving lead photographer of The New York Times in the publication's history.[2]

Personal

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Hornak-Spoutz married Natasha Gavroski in Beverly Hills, California in 2012; they divorced in April 2018.[22][23][1][2] In April 2023 he became engaged to Birmingham, Michigan, decorative arts dealer, Lynsie Leinenger in a suite of the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. Hornak-Spoutz and Leinenger were married at a group wedding ceremony titled, “Totality of the heart,” in Trenton, Ohio during the Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024.[24][25]

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HORNAK-SPOUTZ v KAHN. On October 28, 2024, Hornak-Spoutz filed a civil complaint in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester, against American artist, Scott Kahn.[26][27] The complaint alleged a long term close personal friendship and professional relationship between Hornak-Spoutz and Kahn dating to 2011 which included Hornak-Spoutz's longterm representation of Kahn's artwork in Hornak-Spoutz's galleries. One such exhibition referenced was contemporaneously widely publicized in the media at Hornak-Spoutz's gallery in 2014, Gallery 928, at the Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village in Cape Coral, Florida.[4][28][21] Further alleged was that Hornak had arranged the acquisitions of Kahn's artwork into the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Schmidt Foundation Center for Art and Design at Fort Hays State University, which culminated in a large exhibition of Kahn's work at the Moss-Thorns Gallery of Art at Fort Hays State University in 2024.[29][30][31][32] The complaint alleged that Hornak-Spoutz had, with Kahn's knowledge and consent, made arrangements with Johnathan Crockett, Chairman of Philips Asia, for a $40,000,000 to $60,000,000 USD retrospective exhibition of Kahn's artwork at Philips Asia's headquarters at WKCDA Tower in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong.[26][27] The complaint further alleged that following Hornak-Spoutz's having signed an agreement with Philips Asia for the exhibition which secured the time-slot, October 26, 2023 - November 5, 2023, targeting 50 to 60 artworks by Kahn, and following Hornak-Spoutz and Kahn's mutual planning and curation of the exhibition, Kahn, without warning and in close proximity to the opening of the exhibition, terminated and defaulted on the exhibition.[26][27] The complained also alleged that, at Kahn's request, Hornak-Spoutz used Hornak-Spoutz's own personal, professional, and family connections to introduce Kahn to the senior director of the David Zwirner Gallery for the purpose of securing commercial representation of Kahn's artwork at the gallery.[26][27] It was further alleged that Kahn was displeased with his then current representation at the Almine Rech Ruiz-Picasso Gallery in Paris which had prompted Kahn's request to Hornak for transfer to Zwirner.[26][27] Alleged in the complaint, following Hornak-Spoutz's introduction of Kahn to Zwirner, Kahn conspired with Zwirner to circumvent Hornak-Spoutz in the negotiations for obtaining representation in an effort to avoid compensating Hornak-Spoutz.[26][27] The David Zwirner Gallery subsequently announced global representation of Kahn with a November 2024 debut Kahn exhibition at the David Zwirner Gallery in Hong Kong.[26][27][33] The complaint sought $7,500,000 in damages from Kahn to be awarded to Hornak-Spoutz.[26][27]

UNITED STATES v SPOUTZ. On February 3, 2016, Hornak-Spoutz was arrested by the Art Crime Team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at his penthouse in the Mid-Wilshire District of Los Angeles, California based upon a 26-page criminal complaint[34] issued by the United States Department of Justice, the office of United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara.[35][36][37][38][39][40] Hornak-Spoutz was initially arraigned at the United States Court House in Downtown Los Angeles, and placed on supervised release, thereafter releasing him back to the public. The government charged Hornak-Spoutz with marketing and selling the fraudulent artwork through online auction sites and auction houses. The government conceded that its allegations did not relate to Spoutz's legitimate art galleries that he owned, the artwork that he was responsible for selling and donating to museum collections, or the artwork relating to his uncle, Ian Hornak, but was confined to a separate, isolated criminal scheme. On June 3, 2016, Hornak-Spoutz pled guilty before the Honorable, Lewis A. Kaplan at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan to one count of wire fraud related to the sale of falsely attributed artwork accompanied by forged provenance documents.[15][5] Dozens of character letters from Hornak-Spoutz's friends, family, colleagues and clients written on his behalf begging for leniency were presented to the court including letters from former New York Yankees, Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians baseball player, John Ellis, American lyrical abstraction co-founder Ronnie Landfield, New York artist Scott Kahn, and the executive director of The Heidelberg Project.[23] On February 16, 2017, Hornak-Spoutz was sentenced by the Honorable Lewis A. Kaplan in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to forty-one months in the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown in West Virginia and ordered to forfeit to the United States Congress the $1,450,000 USD of criminal monetary gains he from the scheme and pay $154,100 USD in restitution.[15][41][42][43][44]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tom Watts, "Harrison Township art dealer is quick study," Macomb Daily, Feb. 15, 2012
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jameson Cook, "Dual depictions presented of a prominent art dealer gone bad," Macomb Daily, Feb. 14, 2017
  3. ^ a b Stephen Bennett Phillips, "Ian Hornak Transparent Barricades," exhibition catalogue, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Fine Art Program, Washington D.C., 2012
  4. ^ a b c Charles Runnells, "Gallery 928 brings Picasso, Warhol and other art icons to Cape Coral," The News Press, Feb. 7, 2014
  5. ^ a b US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Government Sentencing Materials, Feb. 6, 2017
  6. ^ a b "Forging Papers to Sell Fake Art," Federal Bureau of Investigation (press release), April 6, 2017
  7. ^ Department of Justice, "JUSTICE, U.S DEPARTMENT OF. FBI STORY: Leadership, Integrity, Agility, Integration. S.l.: W W NORTON, 2019.
  8. ^ Patsy Southgate, "Ian Hornak: Creating An Art Apart," East Hampton Star, Nov. 20, 1997
  9. ^ a b "Jay Wolf, 47, Producer, Casting Director and Agent," New York Times, June 14, 1976
  10. ^ a b "Papers of Jay Wolf, Circa 1900 - 2009," Dartmouth College Rauner Special Collections Library
  11. ^ "Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969," Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art
  12. ^ "Fort Hays State University Spring 2021 Commencement". Fort Hays State University. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  13. ^ "Rutgers University M.A.L.S. Students". Rutgers University.
  14. ^ ""Lowell Nesbitt: A Comprehensive Retrospective Exhibit Opens at the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in Detroit, Michigan," PRWeb.com, August 22, 2003
  15. ^ a b c Reuters, "Michigan Art Dealer Gets Three Years in Prison for Selling Fake Paintings," NBC News, Feb. 16, 2017
  16. ^ Rebecca Massie-Lane, "Three exhibitions; one day," The Hearald-Mail, Sept. 6, 2013
  17. ^ Marci Creps, "On Exhibit: Jan 19, 2014" Hoosier Times, Jan. 19, 2014
  18. ^ Maryanne MacLeod, "Art Center showcases revolutionary exhibit: Nationally celebrated Ian Hornak retrospective," Macomb Daily, Jun. 26, 2014
  19. ^ "Christies lists alternatives to selling art," The Detroit News, Dec. 5, 2013
  20. ^ "Could other assets be sold?," The Detroit News, Oct. 24, 2013
  21. ^ a b Brittany Weiner, "$20 million art exhibit on display in Cape Coral," NBC2, July 18, 2014
  22. ^ US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Defendant Sentencing Materials, Feb. 2, 2017
  23. ^ a b US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Defendant Sentencing Materials (Character Letters), Feb. 2, 2017
  24. ^ Marriage License, The State of Ohio, Butler County, License #00185088. Hornak-Spoutz & Leinenger.
  25. ^ Lakritz, Talia. "Hundreds of couples got married during the solar eclipse. Photos show mass weddings featuring moon-themed cakes and protective glasses". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h Cassady, Daniel (2024-10-29). "Lawsuit Claims Artist Scott Kahn Ditched Phillips Asia Show for David Zwirner Deal". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  27. ^ a b c d e f g h "Hornak-Spoutz v Kahn". Supreme Court of the State of New York. October 28, 2024. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  28. ^ RUNNELLS, CHARLES. "Gallery 928 exhibit features Pollock, Picasso and more". The News-Press. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  29. ^ "Moss Thorns Gallery of Art Permanent Collection - Fort Hays State University (FHSU)". www.fhsu.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  30. ^ "FHSU receives donation of extensive art collection". Hays Post. 2022-05-09. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  31. ^ "FHSU receives donation of extensive art collection - Fort Hays State University (FHSU)". www.fhsu.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  32. ^ "Past Exhibitions". Fort Hays Arts. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  33. ^ Armstrong, Annie (2024-04-19). "Zwirner Lands a Septuagenarian Star, and More Juicy Art World Gossip". Artnet News. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
  34. ^ U.S. v. Spoutz Complaint - US Department of Justice, Jan. 16, 2016
  35. ^ "Michigan Art Dealer Arrested And Charged With Fraud For Selling Dozens Of Forged Artworks Over Five Years," Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, Feb. 3, 2016
  36. ^ "Michigan Art Dealer Sentenced To More Than 3 Years In Prison For Defrauding Collectors Of $1.45 Million Through Sale Of Forged Artworks," Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, Feb. 16, 2017
  37. ^ Alex Johnson, "Art Dealer Eric Spoutz Charged With Selling Dozens of Fakes of American Masters," NBC News, Feb. 3, 2016
  38. ^ Meg Wagner, "Michigan art dealer arrested for selling fake paintings by American masters with forged letters of authenticity," New York Daily News, Feb. 4, 2016
  39. ^ Nate Raymond, "Michigan art dealer arrested by FBI for selling forgeries," Reuters, Feb. 3, 2016
  40. ^ Lia Eustachewich, "Art dealer con man allegedly sold dozens of forged pieces over 15 years," New York Post, Feb. 4, 2016
  41. ^ "Michigan art dealer gets more than 3 years in prison for fraud," The Detroit Free Press, Feb. 16, 2017
  42. ^ Nate Raymond, "Michigan art dealer gets 3-plus years in prison for forgeries," Reuters, Feb. 16, 2017
  43. ^ "Art Dealer Sentenced to More Than Three Years in Prison for Selling Forged Modern Art," Art Forum, Feb. 20, 2017
  44. ^ Elbaor, Caroline (2017-02-20). "Art Dealer Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison for Selling Forgeries". Artnet News. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
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