PAINT BY NUMBERS-Part 2: David Damante’s Scheme To Sell Art He Didn’t Own Using Forged Documents Created By A Las Vegas Mouthpiece Working Both Sides Of The Street!
“Please don’t give this story anymore light. Who knows, for all we know, he might be going into witness protection. Very strong possibility.”
During a June 29, 2018 court hearing, Las Vegas-based con man David Damante (left) admitted violating multiple conditions of his supervised release, including using his purported ownership of two Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings to fraudulently obtain nearly $500,000 from three victims between March and June of this year.
Catch up with Part 1 of the series at this link.
MORE PHONY AFFIDAVITS, DAMANTE BECOMES DIAMANTE & WHO REALLY FORGED THE PAINTING?
Damante began building the fabulist foundation of his Basquiat scheme with an elaborate, and implausible, origin story.
Described by Brett Revell in this July 31, 2017 affidavit, who claims the unnamed painting was given to him by Damante’s father, who asked Revell to “hold the package in safe keeping for his son David Damante”.
Oooh! Spooky!
That has the ring of truth, right?
I don’t know that I would trust someone who lived in the Pleasant Valley Mobile Home Community (AKA ‘trailer park’) to securely handle a work of art ostensibly worth millions.
And here’s another thing: Revell asserted in his affidavit that he “stored the package in my home in Las Vegas, NV until October 2016 whereupon I was instructed to drop the package off at a gallery in Las Vegas called Art Encounters”.
Well, who instructed him to take the package to Art Encounters, a Las Vegas commercial strip storefront with a name similar to a low-rent massage parlor?
It appears it wasn’t Angelo Damante, who passed away in early May 2016.
Hmmm?
Now that’s a question I’d love to have answered.
In his affidavit, dated September 27, 2017, David Damante, now using the surname ‘Diamante’, asserted the following about the Basquiat painting titled “Helicopter Cityscape”: “the above referenced Basquiat was a gift from my father Angelo who left it to me prior to his passing in May 6, 2016.”
More news coming in Part 3, including forged documents, and a stunning revelation about a late-night threat.
