Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne and her estranged husband, disbarred lawyer Tom Girardi, will have to rid themselves of many items in their joint art collection in a court-ordered auction next month, The Art Newspaper reports.
Items up for sale include an etching by the artist David Hockney, a 200th anniversary edition Steinway piano, a first edition copy of Machiavelli’s The Prince and two works by the Spanish artist Joan Miró which are thought to be worth between $800,000-$1.5m and $700,000-$900,000, respectively. Bronze sculptures by Glenna Goodacre will also be up for sale.
In 2020, the couple were slapped with a lawsuit that alleged that the pair had embezzled settlement funds intended for the victims of the Lion Air Flight 610 incident: the plane crashed into the Java Sea in 2018, killing 189 people. Erika Jayne has emphatically denied knowledge or involvement in any fraud.
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Jayne filed for divorce from Girardi, whose firm collapsed after a Chicago judge determined he had misappropriated millions in client funds, in November of 202o, and the firm Edelson PC said that this move was “a sham attempt to fraudulently protect Tom and Erika’s money” and that the couple “are on the verge of financial collapse and locked in a downward spiral of mounting debts and dwindling funds.”
As of this summer, Jayne is also facing a $50 million racketeering lawsuit of her own that accuses the RHOBH star of unlawful business practices and deliberately flaunting a glamorous lifestyle to create a smokescreen of respectability for her husband’s fraudulent dealings.
The proceeds from the upcoming Jayne-Girardi collection auction, which will take place on September 21st, will go towards paying off the pair’s creditors.
In the present season of RHOBH, currently showing on Bravo, Erika Jayne’s alcohol consumption has become a central storyline.
The Daily Beast reached out to Jayne and Girardi for comment.
