Warhol art scam victim calls Brian Walshe a ‘calculated’ con artist

A gallery owner who unwittingly bought two fake Andy Warhol paintings from the husband of missing Massachusetts mom Ana Walshe blasted him as a calculating smooth-talker who “knows how to play the legal system.”

Brian Walshe, 47, who is charged with misleading police after allegedly lying about his movements around the time Ana vanished, was arrested in 2018 for selling the pieces he claimed were part of the artist’s 1978 “Shadows.”

The buyer was Ron Rivlin, owner of Revolver Gallery in Los Angeles and one of the country’s top Warhol art dealers, The Daily Beast reported.

“He knows how to play the legal system, he knows how to play everyone and everything,” Rivlin told the news outlet. “He’s very calculated.”

The former music talent manager said Walshe was initially “charismatic, articulate, transparent and professional” – but became “unreachable until I spoke to Ana at work, and later the FBI” after he sold the fake paintings.

“I’ve bought over a thousand Warhols and this is the one and only acquisition that got by me,” Rivlin told The Daily Beast about the $80,000 swindle.

“He was that good. Clever playbook and Oscar-worthy performance,” he said.

The images of the Warhol canvases that appeared on Ana’s eBay seller’s account were of the original pieces, which had been authenticated, but the paintings Rivlin acquired were phony, according to the news outlet.

Brian pleaded guilty to the ruse last year.

Rivlin said he tried to recover his money but got the runaround as the con artist dodged his phone calls, so he reached out to Ana, who was working at a posh Boston hotel, and told her he’d keep calling her there as long as necessary.

He told The Daily Beast he also called Brian’s mother but that she hung up on him and that her lawyer later told him to keep her out of the matter.

Brian finally emailed Rivlin and claimed the time difference between them made it difficult for him to call, but wrote that he “would like to return your $80,000 ASAP,” The Daily Beast reported, citing the 2018 complaint charging Brian with wire fraud.

“Once you receive your money please send me the ‘shadows,’” Brian wrote. “I need to investigate what happened on my side of this transaction… I don’t want you to suffer financially from this transaction. Especially if the fault is on my side.”

After a string of additional excuses, Brian eventually wired a total of $30,000 to Rivlin, but then went silent again, the outlet said.

“I spoke to [Ana] maybe once or twice after that because they were supposed to refund me and repay me, then that started falling apart,” he told The Daily Beast.

“First it was, ‘We’ll give you your money back.’ Then it was, ‘We’ll make payments.’ Then the payments stopped… He paid $30,000 of the $80,000 [he owed] and then he went silent again,” Rivlin added to the outlet.

Rivlin claims to know where the real paintings ended up abroad after Brian sold them without telling a friend who actually owned them, The Daily Beast said.

“The irony in all this is that there was a window of time when he could’ve just returned my money and he didn’t,” he told the outlet.

“He started returning my money, and I told him that if he returned it all, I wouldn’t pursue it any further. He took a chance, and I followed through on my promise. And I did my own investigating, so I helped the FBI with everything to make it more chargeable,” Rivlin said.

“I couldn’t break him down,” he added. “Lawyers, courts, all that, and he still didn’t voluntarily settle. He never apologized.”

Brian pleaded guilty in April 2021 to one count each of wire fraud, interstate transportation to defraud, possession of converted goods and unlawful monetary transaction, but is still awaiting sentencing in the case.

Rivlin said “it’s incredibly sad” that Ana has disappeared.

“As a parent of young children, I’m having a hard time processing this and hope that she is found and reunited with her family,” he said.

“In the immediate aftermath of the transaction, she seemed shocked and pressured Brian to call me. They were newlyweds at the time, and I got a sense from speaking with her that she wasn’t in on the crime,” the gallery owner added.

On Monday, Brian pleaded not guilty to misleading a police investigation and was ordered held on $500,000 bail pending a court appearance Feb. 9.