Swanky NYC art collector busted for allegedly shoving fellow scion in Hamptons

A prominent New York City art gallerist and collector was arrested at a swanky Montauk hideaway earlier this month for allegedly trespassing and shoving a fellow dealer.

Adam Lindemann, 61, was taken into custody by the East Hampton Town Police and charged with third degree criminal trespass and second degree harassment July 5, according to the police record published in the East Hampton Town Press. 

Lindemann entered a “private property — through an open driveway gate with a ‘No Trespassing’ sign on it — and went into a building used as an art gallery without permission,” cops said.

He then allegedly pushed the fellow dealer in the chest.

The East Hampton Police were unable to provide more information Friday, but Lindemann’s lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., confirmed to The Post that the property his client entered is The Ranch, a 26-acre horse farm-turned-art gallery on Old Montauk Highway owned by former Marlborough Gallery staffer Max Levai.

Burke also identified Levai as the individual his client allegedly shoved.

Lindemann – who owns Andy Warhol’s oceanside Eothen estate nearby – and Levai’s tiff started over zoning regulations, Burke told The Post.

“[Levai] is using the space commercially, in violation of town codes,” he claimed.

Burke attended his client’s July 19 court date solo.

Lindemann, who owns the Venus Over Manhattan Gallery on Madison Avenue, could not attend because of previously scheduled travel plans, the Sag Harbor-based lawyer told The Post.

Burke entered pleas on not guilty on Lindemann’s behalf and requested to move the trial date.

In his conversation with The Post, Burke alleged that his client did enter The Ranch but was not trespassing.

He also denied that Lindemann shoved Levai.

“These charges are absurd. My client has been to The Ranch many times since the opening three years ago,” he told Artnet earlier this week. 

“I am confident these charges will be dropped.”

Venus Over Manhattan did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment Friday morning.

Lindemann is the son of late natural-gas billionaire George Lyle Lindemann. 

His younger brother, George Lindemann, Jr., served time in prison in the late 1990s for an insurance fraud scheme that involved killing horses for profit, the New York Times reported.

In 2020, Adam Lindemann made headlines when he sued real-estate mogul Aby Rosen to break his lease at Venus Over Manhattan’s Madison Avenue address on the grounds that he could not do business there because of COVID-19, The Art Newspaper said at the time.

In March of this year, the Yale Law grad raked in a stunning $31.5 million at a Christie’s auction of three dozen items from his private collection, ARTNews reported.

Several of the works – which included coveted pieces by Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Alexander Calder – sold for above their estimated price, the outlet noted.

Earlier this summer, Adam Lindemann and his wife, fellow dealer Amalia Dayan, sparked rumors they were decamping from Montauk by quietly shuttering their mutual project, the South Etna Montauk Foundation, and listing Eothen as a short-term rental, Artnet reported.

The couple previously tried to offload the famed property for $65 million in 2020 but failed to attract a buyer.

Max Levai is the son of art dealer Pierre Levai. He purchased The Ranch in 2020 and recently set fingers wagging out East with his zoning application to possibly build a large residence on one of the lots, according to the East Hampton Star.