New York seeks $17K from seemingly defunct Nancy Wiener Gallery

New York State’s Workers’ Compensation Board is seeking a $17,000 court judgment against the Nancy Wiener Gallery, which has not appeared to operate publicly in years.

The business failed to carry required workers’ compensation insurance from February 21, 2024, through January 31, 2025, and has not paid the resulting penalties, the state alleges in court documents filed Thursday in New York County Supreme Court.

A notice dated November 3 warns that the state may seize “business and personal” assets if the penalty remains unpaid. The Workers’ Compensation Board is asking a judge to enter judgment for the full amount under Section 26 of the Workers’ Compensation Law, a move that would allow the state to enforce the debt.

The document itself contains a caution that it has not yet been reviewed or approved by the County Clerk, although it has been filed electronically.

Though the gallery has seemingly not participated in New York art-market programming for several years and appears to have no current public-facing activity, the corporation behind it technically remains active.

State records reviewed by Urgent Matter show Nancy Wiener Gallery Inc. was dissolved by proclamation in 2011 after missing required filings but was reinstated in 2014 through an annulment of dissolution.

The entity has not filed a biennial statement since 1996 and is listed as past due, yet the New York Department of State continues to classify it as “active,” allowing agencies to treat it as a viable employer for assessment purposes. The record contains no recent filings, address updates or assumed names, suggesting the corporation exists largely as a dormant entity.

Public traces of the gallery’s operations are scant in recent years. Her website, which is still active, shows that the gallery is operating “by appointment only.” But it appears not to have been updated since Asia Week 2018.

Wiener’s documented legal troubles began in December 2016, when federal agents and investigators from the Manhattan district attorney’s office raided her gallery during Asia Week and seized objects they said were looted from South and Southeast Asia.

She was arrested and prosecutors alleged she participated in a trafficking network that smuggled antiquities into the United States for decades and falsified provenance to sell them through auctions, galleries and private collectors.

Wiener pleaded guilty in 2021 to conspiracy and possession of stolen property after a years-long investigation into the trafficking of antiquities.

The fallout from that case continues to surface. In 2024, the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the return of 30 antiquities to Cambodia and Indonesia, including a Khmer bronze “Shiva Triad,” which investigators say passed through Wiener’s hands before entering a U.S. collection.

Additional works linked to the network of dealers associated with the gallery have been repatriated in recent years as part of ongoing investigations.

The Workers’ Compensation Board’s filing offers a unique glimpse into a gallery’s afterlife.  Even as its public presence faded, the legal entity persisted in state records and legal fallout can continue long after a gallery closes its doors.

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