Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz (born August 3, 1983) is an American

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...

,Tom Watts, "Harrison Township art dealer is quick study," Macomb Daily, Feb. 15, 2012Jameson Cook, "Dual depictions presented of a prominent art dealer gone bad," Macomb Daily, Feb. 14, 2017

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Stephen Bennett Phillips, "Ian Hornak Transparent Barricades," exhibition catalogue, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Fine Art Program, Washington D.C., 2012 and museum

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

. Spoutz has owned art galleries in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, Cape Coral, Florida,Charles Runnells, "Gallery 928 brings Picasso, Warhol and other art icons to Cape Coral," The News Press, Feb. 7, 2014 Palm Beach, Florida, and

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

.US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Government Sentencing Materials, Feb. 6, 2017

Early life and family

Spoutz was born in

Mount Clemens, Michigan Mount Clemens is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 16,314 at the 2010 census. It is the seat of government of Macomb County. History Mount Clemens was first surveyed in 1795 after the American Revolutionary War by Christi ...

on August 3, 1983, to Carl Spoutz, a real estate developer and

Rosemary Hornak Rosemary Hornak (born February 3, 1951) is an American visual artist, known for her late twentieth-century contributions to American Folk Art; art collector; philanthropist; the sister of founding Photorealist and Hyperrealist artist, Ian Hornak ...

, an artist."Forging Papers to Sell Fake Art," Federal Bureau of Investigation (press release), April 6, 2017 Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz's maternal uncle and namesakeDepartment of Justice, "JUSTICE, U.S DEPARTMENT OF. FBI STORY: Leadership, Integrity, Agility, Integration. S.l.: W W NORTON, 2019. was the founding Hyperrealist and

Photorealist Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term ca ...

artist,

Ian Hornak Ian Hornak (January 9, 1944 – December 9, 2002) was an American draughtsman, painter and printmaker. He was one of the founding artists of the Hyperrealist and Photorealist fine art movements; credited with having been the first Photor ...

. Ian Hornak's

life partner The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming ...

was Julius Rosenthal Wolf,Patsy Southgate, "Ian Hornak: Creating An Art Apart," East Hampton Star, Nov. 20, 1997"Jay Wolf, 47, Producer, Casting Director and Agent," New York Times, June 14, 1976 who was a prominent American

casting director In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a script, screenp ...

, producer,

theatrical agent A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or s ...

art collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

, and the vice president of General Amusement Corporation, then the second largest talent management agency in the world."Papers of Jay Wolf, Circa 1900 - 2009," Dartmouth College Rauner Special Collections Library"Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974, bulk 1926-1969," Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art During the 1950s and 1960s, Wolf had been the assistant director of

Edith Halpert Edith Halpert or Edith Gregor Halpert (née Edith Gregoryevna Fivoosiovitch; 1900–1970) was a pioneering New York City dealer of American modern art and American folk art. She brought recognition and market success to many avant-garde American ...

's Downtown Gallery in New York City where he became a champion of American Modernism in the visual arts. Via the bloodline of his paternal grandmother, Hornak-Spoutz is the eleventh-generation descendent of Mayflower passenger,

Francis Cooke Francis Cooke (c.1583 – April 7, 1663) was a Leiden Separatist, who went to America in 1620 on the Pilgrim ship ''Mayflower'', which arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He was a founding member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a signer of ...

(1583-1663). He is also the thirteenth-generation descendant of captain John Marchant (1540-1592), and the tenth-generation descendant of Massasoit Sachem (1580-1661). Spoutz's parents divorced in 1993 when he was 9 years old. He was raised by his mother, his father's parents and his uncle, Ian Hornak. During the school year he lived in Mount Clemens, Michigan and many summers, and holidays he spent with Ian Hornak at his home and studio in

East Hampton, New York The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a tot ...

and in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Through his early exposure to the art world in New York, Spoutz took an interest in art and became his uncle's studio manager in East Hampton at age 16. Elmer Spoutz, Eric Spoutz's paternal grandfather who was a real estate developer and businessman, died when Eric Spoutz was 18 in 2002 and he became the

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...

of his grandfather's estate. Later in 2002 when Spoutz was 19, his uncle Ian Hornak died and Spoutz became the executor of his estate.

Education

Spoutz graduated from Cardinal Mooney Catholic College Preparatory School in 2001. He graduated with a

Bachelor of General Studies A Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) is a highly interdisciplinary undergraduate academic degree offered by colleges and universities that "allows students to combine and explore multiple subjects." The concept of general studies derives from the ...

degree with concentrations in General Business & Historical Studies from

Fort Hays State University Fort Hays State University (FHSU) is a public university in Hays, Kansas. It is the fourth-largest of the six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents, with a total enrollment of approximately 15,100 students. History FHSU w ...

. As of 2022, he is a graduate student at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

where he is pursuing a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree in Creative Arts and Literature.

Career

In 2003, Spoutz opened the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in the

Fisher Building The Fisher Building is a landmark skyscraper located at 3011 West Grand Boulevard in the heart of the New Center area of Detroit, Michigan. The ornate 30-story building, completed in 1928, is one of the major works of architect Albert Kahn, and ...

in Detroit, Michigan which specialized in photorealist and hyperrealist artwork. He curated, "

Lowell Nesbitt Lowell Blair Nesbitt (October 4, 1933 - July 8, 1993) was an American painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor. He served as the official artist for the NASA Apollo 9, and Apollo 13 space missions; in 1976 the United States Navy commissio ...

: A Retrospective" there in 2004, which was the largest display of the artist's artwork since the artist's death in 1993.""Lowell Nesbitt: A Comprehensive Retrospective Exhibit Opens at the Eric I. Spoutz Gallery in Detroit, Michigan," PRWeb.com, August 22, 2003 Later Spoutz moved to Palm Beach, Florida where he lived in a beachfront penthouse until moving back to Michigan in 2008. Between 2007 and 2017, Spoutz placed artwork by many artists into the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution's

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

, the

Smithsonian Libraries Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an institutional archives and library system comprising 21 branch libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. The Libraries and Archives serve Smithsonian Institutio ...

, the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

Prints and Photographs Division, the Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections Division, the

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the mo ...

, the

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

, the

National Hellenic Museum The National Hellenic Museum is the second oldest American institution dedicated to displaying and celebrating the cultural contributions of Greeks and Greek-Americans. Formerly known as the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, the National Helle ...

, the

National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML) is a museum and library of Czech and Slovak history and culture located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the United States. Established in 1974, the museum and library moved to its present site in 19 ...

, the

Florida State Capitol The Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida, is an architecturally and historically significant building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Capitol is at the intersection of Apalachee Parkway and South ...

, the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

's Rauner Special Collections Library, the

Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum (known popularly as the Zimmerli Art Museum) is located on the Voorhees Mall of the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The museum houses more than 60,000 works, including Russian and ...

, The George Washington University Art Galleries,

The Kinsey Institute The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction (often shortened to The Kinsey Institute) is a research institute at Indiana University. Established in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1947 as a nonprofit, the institute merged with Indi ...

for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, the Forest Lawn Museum, the

Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages, known as the Long Island Museum (LIM), is a nine-acre museum located in Stony Brook, New York. The LIM serves the Long Island community by preserving and displaying its collection of ...

, the

Flint Institute of Arts The Flint Institute of Arts, also called FIA, is located in the Flint Cultural Center in Flint, Michigan. The second largest art museum in Michigan, it offers exhibitions, interpretive programs, film screenings, concerts, lectures, family events ...

, the

Boston Children's Hospital Boston Children's Hospital formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2012 is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children's hospital located in Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical Scho ...

, the

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is a children's hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with its primary campus located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia in the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The ...

, the

Detroit Historical Museum The Detroit Historical Museum is located at 5401 Woodward Avenue in the city's Cultural Center Historic District in Midtown Detroit. It chronicles the history of the Detroit area from cobblestone streets, 19th century stores, the auto assembly li ...

and the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music an ...

. Spoutz also curated traveling museum exhibitions throughout the United States including an exhibition at

Federal Reserve Board of Governors The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the m ...

in Washington D.C. that was on display during

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

's 2013

Presidential Inauguration A presidential inauguration is a ceremonial event centered on the formal transition of a new president into office, usually in democracies where this official has been elected. Frequently, this involves the swearing of an oath of office. Examples o ...

Personal

Hornak-Spoutz married Natasha Gavroski in Beverly Hills, California in 2012; they divorced in April 2018.US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Defendant Sentencing Materials, Feb. 2, 2017US v. Spoutz, 16 Cr. 392: Defendant Sentencing Materials (Character Letters), Feb. 2, 2017 In April 2023 he became engaged to

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1). As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103. History The area comprising what is now the ...

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

dealer, Lynsie Leinenger in a suite of the

Westin Book Cadillac Hotel The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic skyscraper hotel in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the , 31- ...

Legal

On February 3, 2016, Eric Spoutz was arrested at his penthouse in Hollywood,

based upon a 26-page

criminal complaint In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...

U.S. v. Spoutz Complaint - US Department of Justice, Jan. 16, 2016 issued by the office of United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,

Preet Bharara Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer, author, podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is curren ...

."Michigan Art Dealer Arrested And Charged With Fraud For Selling Dozens Of Forged Artworks Over Five Years," Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, Feb. 3, 2016"Michigan Art Dealer Sentenced To More Than 3 Years In Prison For Defrauding Collectors Of $1.45 Million Through Sale Of Forged Artworks," Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, Feb. 16, 2017Alex Johnson, "Art Dealer Eric Spoutz Charged With Selling Dozens of Fakes of American Masters," NBC News, Feb. 3, 2016Meg Wagner, "Michigan art dealer arrested for selling fake paintings by American masters with forged letters of authenticity," New York Daily News, Feb. 4, 2016Nate Raymond, "Michigan art dealer arrested by FBI for selling forgeries," Reuters, Feb. 3, 2016Lia Eustachewich, "Art dealer con man allegedly sold dozens of forged pieces over 15 years," New York Post, Feb. 4, 2016 On June 3, 2016, Spoutz pled guilty in the case of US v. Spoutz to one count of wire fraud related to the sale of falsely attributed artwork accompanied by forged provenance documents. The government charged Spoutz with marketing and selling the fraudulent artwork through online auction sites and auction houses. The criminal case did not relate to Spoutz's legitimate art galleries that he owned, the artwork that he put into museum collections or the artwork by his uncle, Ian Hornak. Dozens of character letters from Spoutz's friends, family, colleagues and clients written on his behalf begging for leniency were presented to the court including letters from former

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

, Texas Rangers and

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

baseball player, John Ellis, American

lyrical abstraction Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting: ''European Abstraction Lyrique'' born in Paris, the French art critic Jean José Marchand being credited with coining its name in 1947, considered ...

co-founder

Ronnie Landfield Ronnie Landfield (born January 9, 1947) is an American abstract painter. During his early career from the mid-1960s through the 1970s his paintings were associated with Lyrical Abstraction (related to Postminimalism, Color Field painting, an ...

, New York artist, Scott Kahn and the executive director of The

. On February 16, 2017, Spoutz was sentenced by the Honorable

Lewis A. Kaplan Lewis A. Kaplan (born December 23, 1944) is a United States district judge serving on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He took senior status on February 1, 2011. Education, career, personal life Born in S ...

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

to 41 months in federal prison at

Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown The Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown (FCI Morgantown) is a minimum-security United States federal prison for male inmates in West Virginia. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of ...

and ordered to forfeit the $1.45 million he made from the scheme and pay $154,100 in restitution.Reuters, "Michigan Art Dealer Gets Three Years in Prison for Selling Fake Paintings," NBC News, Feb. 16, 2017"Michigan art dealer gets more than 3 years in prison for fraud," The Detroit Free Press, Feb. 16, 2017Nate Raymond, "Michigan art dealer gets 3-plus years in prison for forgeries," Reuters, Feb. 16, 2017"Art Dealer Sentenced to More Than Three Years in Prison for Selling Forged Modern Art," Art Forum, Feb. 20, 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spoutz, Eric 1983 births People from Mount Clemens, Michigan American art dealers American art historians American art curators American fraudsters 21st-century American criminals Living people Historians from Michigan