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Upper East Side Gallery's Art Seized After Dealer Defaults on Loan

By DNAinfo Staff on April 7, 2010 4:20pm  | Updated on April 7, 2010 4:13pm

Winslow Homer's
Winslow Homer's "Snap the Whip" print. Over the years, the Berry Hill Galleries in the Upper East Side has shown works from artists like Homer. The galllery had artworks seized Tuesday after defaulting on a $9.5 million loan.
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AP Images

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UPPER EAST SIDE — Lenders carried out artwork from renowned American painters out of a gallery Tuesday after its owners defaulted on a $9.5 million loan, the Wall Street Journal reported.

A judge ruled that the Berry Hill Galleries at 11 East 70th St. defaulted on a loan from American Capital Financial Services on March 30 and chairman James Berry Hill had entered into negotiations to repay the loan, he told the Journal.

Boxes containing art carted out of the gallery Tuesday bore the names of artists H. Frishmuth, for Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, B. West, for Benjamin West, and N.A. Brooks, for Nicholas Alden Brooks, the Journal reported.

Harriet Whitney Frishmuth's
Harriet Whitney Frishmuth's "The Call of the Sea" at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. The Berry Hill Galleries reportedly held some of Frishmuth's art, along with those of other artists, before having lenders seize works Tuesday.
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Flickr/peterjr1961

Over the years, the gallery has shown the works of American masters Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt and Milton Avery, according to its web site.

Berry Hill denied the art was seized, claiming that movers were simply warehousing the works while the gallery prepared for a one-person show, the Journal reported.

"We are negotiating to pay the bank in full," he told the paper.

The judge also found that the gallery "secretly" sold $300,000 worth of its art to another gallery after the bank notified it of the default, the Journal added.