Fernwood: The Aftermath

There was a time when people thought Fernwood Art Investments might be able to launch a successful art fund, disproving the naysayers who maintain you can't predict art prices with any degree of acceptable certainty.

But Fernwood imploded in the spring of 2006. The fund's founder and chairman has since faced two suits by investors who want their money back. The first was filed by Shamrock Estates Limited LLC, a Burbank, CA-based investment company that advises the family of Roy E. Disney (nephew of Walt). After Taub failed to defend that suit, a judge issued a default judgment in July ordering Shamrock's $1 million investment to be repaid with interest.

The plaintiffs in the second suit — a bloc of investors that includes Ashton Hawkins, who served as general counsel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than 30 years, and chocolatier John Scharffenberger — seem to be facing similar difficulty getting Taub to respond. Documents filed yesterday say that he was a no show at his deposition on October 22nd.

I didn't have any luck getting Taub to talk, either, when I reached him by phone several months ago. "I wish I could," he said, "but I'm permitted from doing so."