Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

by Tom Wright

In all, between May and September 2013, Low, via Tanore, bought $137 million in art. But Low had picked up more via other channels, such as the van Gogh, as well as works by Lichtenstein, Picasso, and Warhol, and by the end of the year he possessed art worth an estimated $330 million. He stashed it all in the Geneva Freeport and then set about covering up the evidence of how it had been financed. To do that, Low wrote a series of letters—supposedly from Eric Tan—offering him the artworks bought by Tanore as a gift. In the letters, “Tan” said he was giving Low the art because of the “generosity, support and trust you have shared with me over the course of our friendship, especially during the difficult periods of my life.” All of the letters ended, absurdly, with a rider stating that the gift “should not in any event be construed as an act of corruption.” Low was exhibiting signs of sloppiness: It was risible that someone would hand over $100 million in art for no consideration. McFarland also got a painting from “Tan”—the cheaper Mark Ryden work—but no one could enjoy these testaments to human creativity; they were locked away in the humidity-controlled vaults of the Geneva Freeport.