Controversies
Douglas Chrismas' disregard of artists is so legendary, he has earned a place in art history. Miwon Kwon, in her account of site specificity: "One Place After Another," presents an account of ACE Gallery recreating artworks by Donald Judd and Carl Andre without their permission. Andre and Judd both publilly denounced these recreations as "a gross falsification" and a "forgery," in letters to Art in America. In a 1983 lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court, Rauschenberg sought $500,000 from Chrismas' Flow Ace Gallery; the artist won a $140,000 judgment in the suit in 1984. In 1986, Chrismas was charged with theft after Canadian real estate developer C. Frederick Stimpson alleged that he had improperly sold work belonging to the collector, among them pieces by Andy Warhol and Rauschenberg. Initially, the dealer pleaded not guilty to that charge, but he later changed his plea to no contest under a deal in which he agreed to pay $650,000 over a period of five years to the collector. After having consigned more than $4 million worth of art to ACE Gallery to sell in 1997 and 1998, the sculptor Jannis Kounellis filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2006, accusing Chrismas of keeping most of the profits of artworks and refusing to return the pieces that did not sell.
As of 2006, Chrismas has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at least six times since 1982, effectively barring most of his creditors from collecting the money owed them.
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