“Flight of Europa,” a 1925 bronze sculpture by the American artist Paul Manship, is valued at $375,000. (U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado)
First Western is asking a federal judge to appoint a caretaker for an $18 million art collection that is collateral for one of the Denver bank’s loans and is reportedly being sold off.
In its Oct. 18 lawsuit, the bank accuses Gerald Peters and his wife Kathleen of defaulting on an $11 million loan and showing “complete disregard” for its fine art collateral. The Peterses are art dealers, real estate moguls, restaurateurs and well-known figures in Santa Fe, N.M.
“It’s just a timing issue; no one over here is too concerned,” said Hether Bearinger, an executive assistant to Gerald Peters and his art galleries. “It should be sorted out soon.”
First Western claims that it loaned the money in 2019 and was to be repaid in 2022. The collateral was a 61-piece collection valued in April 2024 at $18.2 million, according to a 140-page appraisal report First Western attached to the lawsuit it filed in Denver.
The collection’s most valuable piece is an 1837 work by Charles Bird King, an American artist. The oil painting of Powasheek, a Native American chief, once hung in the Denver Art Museum and the Smithsonian. It is valued at $2.3 million, according to its appraiser.
Elsewhere in the collection are a $125,000 drawing by Pablo Picasso, a $1.8 million bronze statue from Frederic Remington, a $300,000 painting of a bluebird by John Audubon, and six Georgia O’Keeffe works that are reportedly worth more than $3 million.
“Powasheek,” an 1837 painting by Charles Bird King. (U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado)
First Western accuses the Peterses of selling several of the works without notifying the bank, a violation of their loan agreement, and using several others as collateral for more loans. The King painting, for example, is also subject to a Bank of America lien, First Western said.
So, the Denver bank is asking U.S. District Judge Regina Rodriguez to let a receiver take control of what is now 55 pieces of art. First Western has chosen for the job Gary Schwartz, a local fraud examiner with the forensic accounting firm Betzer Call Lausten & Schwartz.
“Defaults have continued and collateral securing the loan has been disposed of or is otherwise in danger of substantial waste or risk of loss,” the bank told the judge on Oct. 18.
“A receiver’s appointment is the best, if not the only, means of securing and preserving the collateral against actions the (Peterses) have and may continue to take by which the collateral is wasted, squandered or lost,” First Western’s lawyers explained then.
The artworks are believed to be spread across several states and a half-dozen locations, including the couple’s home in Wyoming, their galleries in Santa Fe and New York City, a restaurant in Santa Fe, a bank in Los Alamos and Christie’s auction house in New York.
“Defendants have engaged in fraudulent conduct and will continue to do so in the future to avoid their obligations under the loan documents,” First Western alleges of the Peterses.
The bank is represented by attorney Fritz Ganz with the Denver firm Coan Payton & Payne.
This 1921 Georgia O’Keeffe painting of a sunflower is valued at $1 million. (U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado)
First Western’s lawsuit is one of several filed against the Peterses in recent months, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. In August, debtholders sued to foreclose on a half-dozen properties in that city after the couple allegedly defaulted on an $11 million loan.
Gerald Peters, 76, was O’Keeffe’s exclusive dealer during the last decade of her life, from 1976 to 1986, while she lived north of the New Mexico capital. Peters made headlines in 2000 when he was found to have sold 24 watercolors, purportedly by O’Keeffe but later found to be fakes, for $3.6 million and a $1.4 million house in Colorado. He refunded the money from that and from the sale of a misattributed Albert Bierstadt painting to David Rockefeller.
Peters is also a combatant in a legal battle in New York City, where heirs to an art collection are accusing him of owning several works that were stolen from their family 50 years ago. Attorneys for Peters and his art gallery say that the heirs’ ownership claims are “without merit.”
“Flight of Europa,” a 1925 bronze sculpture by the American artist Paul Manship, is valued at $375,000. (U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado)
First Western is asking a federal judge to appoint a caretaker for an $18 million art collection that is collateral for one of the Denver bank’s loans and is reportedly being sold off.
In its Oct. 18 lawsuit, the bank accuses Gerald Peters and his wife Kathleen of defaulting on an $11 million loan and showing “complete disregard” for its fine art collateral. The Peterses are art dealers, real estate moguls, restaurateurs and well-known figures in Santa Fe, N.M.
“It’s just a timing issue; no one over here is too concerned,” said Hether Bearinger, an executive assistant to Gerald Peters and his art galleries. “It should be sorted out soon.”
First Western claims that it loaned the money in 2019 and was to be repaid in 2022. The collateral was a 61-piece collection valued in April 2024 at $18.2 million, according to a 140-page appraisal report First Western attached to the lawsuit it filed in Denver.
The collection’s most valuable piece is an 1837 work by Charles Bird King, an American artist. The oil painting of Powasheek, a Native American chief, once hung in the Denver Art Museum and the Smithsonian. It is valued at $2.3 million, according to its appraiser.
Elsewhere in the collection are a $125,000 drawing by Pablo Picasso, a $1.8 million bronze statue from Frederic Remington, a $300,000 painting of a bluebird by John Audubon, and six Georgia O’Keeffe works that are reportedly worth more than $3 million.
“Powasheek,” an 1837 painting by Charles Bird King. (U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado)
First Western accuses the Peterses of selling several of the works without notifying the bank, a violation of their loan agreement, and using several others as collateral for more loans. The King painting, for example, is also subject to a Bank of America lien, First Western said.
So, the Denver bank is asking U.S. District Judge Regina Rodriguez to let a receiver take control of what is now 55 pieces of art. First Western has chosen for the job Gary Schwartz, a local fraud examiner with the forensic accounting firm Betzer Call Lausten & Schwartz.
“Defaults have continued and collateral securing the loan has been disposed of or is otherwise in danger of substantial waste or risk of loss,” the bank told the judge on Oct. 18.
“A receiver’s appointment is the best, if not the only, means of securing and preserving the collateral against actions the (Peterses) have and may continue to take by which the collateral is wasted, squandered or lost,” First Western’s lawyers explained then.
The artworks are believed to be spread across several states and a half-dozen locations, including the couple’s home in Wyoming, their galleries in Santa Fe and New York City, a restaurant in Santa Fe, a bank in Los Alamos and Christie’s auction house in New York.
“Defendants have engaged in fraudulent conduct and will continue to do so in the future to avoid their obligations under the loan documents,” First Western alleges of the Peterses.
The bank is represented by attorney Fritz Ganz with the Denver firm Coan Payton & Payne.
This 1921 Georgia O’Keeffe painting of a sunflower is valued at $1 million. (U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado)
First Western’s lawsuit is one of several filed against the Peterses in recent months, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. In August, debtholders sued to foreclose on a half-dozen properties in that city after the couple allegedly defaulted on an $11 million loan.
Gerald Peters, 76, was O’Keeffe’s exclusive dealer during the last decade of her life, from 1976 to 1986, while she lived north of the New Mexico capital. Peters made headlines in 2000 when he was found to have sold 24 watercolors, purportedly by O’Keeffe but later found to be fakes, for $3.6 million and a $1.4 million house in Colorado. He refunded the money from that and from the sale of a misattributed Albert Bierstadt painting to David Rockefeller.
Peters is also a combatant in a legal battle in New York City, where heirs to an art collection are accusing him of owning several works that were stolen from their family 50 years ago. Attorneys for Peters and his art gallery say that the heirs’ ownership claims are “without merit.”
