Oakland County Art Dealer Gets Prison Time For $1.5M Scheme

BIRMINGHAM, MI — A former Birmingham art dealer was sentenced to prison Wednesday for stealing more than $1.5 million in profits from at least ten customers who trusted her with the sale, according to the Michigan U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Wendy Halstead Beard, 59, was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of wire last year.

Officials said Beard ran the scheme from March 2019 through October 2022 with the purpose to steal the proceeds from the sale of the rare photographs that had been provided to her by her customers on a consignment basis, officials said.

Once Beard received the rare photographs, she then sold the artwork without the knowledge of the owners and kept the profits for her own personal gain, according to officials.

When customers asked for their photographs back after the consignment agreements ended, Beard continually deceived the owners, many of whom were elderly, about the status of their photographs, officials said.

Beard provided the customers with a false sense of security by offering excuses for her unwillingness or inability to promptly return the victims’ after the expiration of the operative, officials said.

Beard often exaggerated the severity of her own health problems, including claiming to have recently been in a coma and to have received a double-lung transplant, officials said.

Beard also told her customers that there was a lack of interest among potential buyers, although she already sold the photographs in question, officials said.

Moreover, Beard created fake “employee” identities, which she used to correspond with her customers in a further effort to deceive them, officials said.

All together, officials said Beard stole at least $1.5 million during the course of the scheme.

“Beard’s ongoing deception was of a level that we rarely see, even in fraud cases, lying to her customers repeatedly in an attempt to conceal her scheme,” United States Attorney Dawn Ison said. “Today’s sentence will hopefully bring a measure of closure for the more than three-dozen victims who trusted Wendy Beard with their valuable artwork.”