Andrew John Crispo (April 21, 1945 – February 8, 2024) was an American art dealer and gallery owner based in New York. He later became involved in a number of widely reported legal cases.
Early life Andrew John Crispo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and spent much of his childhood in orphanages and foster homes. Long-form profiles later described his upbringing as unsettled and marked by frequent displacement, with little evidence of sustained parental support. Acquaintances quoted in later reporting suggested that these early circumstances contributed to his pronounced desire for independence, financial security, and social advancement.
Little is documented about Crispo’s formal education. Contemporary accounts generally describe him as largely self-taught, relying on observation, mimicry, and personal relationships rather than structured academic training. By his teenage years, he was living with minimal supervision in Philadelphia and navigating adult social environments at an unusually young age, developing a reputation for social adaptability and resourcefulness.
Several later sources report that during this period Crispo came into contact with Henry McIlhenny, a prominent Philadelphia art patron, philanthropist, and longtime chairman of the board of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. McIlhenny has been described as an early mentor figure who exposed Crispo to modern art and to the social world of collectors and cultural institutions, and who encouraged his ambition to enter the art trade. While accounts vary regarding the depth and duration of the relationship, McIlhenny is consistently cited as one of the earliest influential figures in Crispo’s formative years.
Another early influence identified in contemporaneous reporting was Luigi Darracova, described as Crispo’s astrologist and confidant. In interviews conducted for Vanity Fair, Darracova stated that he had known Crispo since 1965, when he operated a small gallery in Philadelphia. Darracova recalled first encountering him as a young and attentive gallery visitor, already demonstrating an interest in art and an awareness of gallery culture well before establishing himself professionally.
By the early 1960s, Crispo began to distance himself from Philadelphia and the instability of his youth. He relocated to New York City, a move described in later profiles as a deliberate attempt to reinvent himself and escape the constraints of his early life . Those who later reflected on this period characterized Crispo as intent on reshaping his identity and positioning himself within environments that offered access to wealth, culture, and influence.
Together, these early experiences — an institutional childhood, largely self-directed survival, and early exposure to patrons, galleries, and mentors — formed the foundation for Crispo’s later career in the art trade and his ability to navigate elite social and commercial circles despite the absence of traditional credentials.
Career, and the Andrew Crispo Gallery After relocating to New York City in the 1960s, Andrew Crispo entered the art trade through informal apprenticeships rather than academic or curatorial training. He worked initially as a gofer and assistant for East Side art and antiques dealers, learning the mechanics of the market through observation and personal relationships rather than formal study. By the late 1960s, he had become a regular presence in galleries, auction rooms, and private viewings, positioning himself within the commercial art world through persistence and social fluency.
In 1973, at the age of 28, Crispo opened his own gallery in New York with modest backing from an early collector client. The gallery soon occupied a duplex space spanning two floors at 41 East 57th Street, within the Fuller Building, one of the most important gallery buildings in mid-twentieth-century New York. Contemporary reporting described the space as unusually expansive for a private gallery, with interconnected floors that allowed for large scale exhibitions and private viewing rooms, and later accounts referred to it as a posh, duplex gallery designed to impress high level collectors.
The Fuller Building housed a concentration of leading dealers during this period, and Crispo’s gallery operated alongside those of Pierre Matisse, André Emmerich, Robert Miller, and other prominent midtown dealers, placing it within the core commercial network of postwar American and European art. Within this environment, the Andrew Crispo Gallery developed a reputation not only for private transactions but also for staging ambitious, historically framed exhibitions.
The gallery mounted a number of exhibitions that later appeared in museum, auction, and institutional provenance records, reflecting their lasting scholarly and market relevance. Among the most frequently cited were Pioneers of American Abstraction (1973), an exhibition that examined early twentieth century American modernism and marked Crispo’s emergence as a serious dealer; Ten Americans: Avery, Burchfield, Demuth, Dove, Homer, Hopper, Marin, Prendergast, Sargent, Wyeth (1974), a survey drawing together canonical figures of American art; and Twelve Americans: Masters of Collage (1977), which placed modern and contemporary American artists within a broader art historical lineage. Works shown in these exhibitions later entered major private and institutional collections, and auction houses routinely referenced the exhibitions in provenance listings, underscoring their significance.
Crispo represented or dealt extensively in the work of artists associated with American modernism and postwar art, including Edward Hopper, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, Charles Demuth, and Milton Avery among others. Additionally the gallery represented a stable of contemporary artists including, Douglas Abdell,Abdell, Douglas, and Andrew Crispo Gallery. The Sculpture of Douglas Abdell: January 14th to February 5th, 1977. Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, 1977. Richard Anuszkiewicz,Anuszkiewicz, Richard, et al. Richard Anuszkiewicz: Recent Paintings, March 22–April 19, 1975. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1975. Jon CarsmanCarsman, Jon, and Andrew Crispo Gallery. Jon Carsman, Paintings and Watercolors: February 1979. A. Crispo Gallery, 1979., Michael ClarkClark, Michael, and Andrew Crispo Gallery. Michael Clark: Exhibition January 16–February 2, 1973. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1973., Robert Courtright,Courtright, Robert, and Calvin Tomkins. Robert Courtright: Recent Works, Collages, 1972–1979. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1979. Nancy Genn,Genn, Nancy, et al. Nancy Genn: Paper Paintings, September 6–29, 1984. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1984. Carl Holty,Andrew Crispo Gallery. Carl Holty: Memorial Exhibition, April 20–May 11, 1974. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1974. David Ligare,Andrew Crispo Gallery. David Ligare: Paintings and Drawings, September 23–October 14, 1978. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1978. Roberto Matta,Matta Echaurren, Roberto Sebastián, and Andrew Crispo Gallery. Matta: A Totemic World: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, January 11–February 15, 1975. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1974. Lowell Nesbitt,Nesbitt, Lowell, and Andrew Crispo Gallery. Lowell Nesbitt, an Autobiography: January 23–February 21, 1976. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1976. I. Rice Pereira,Pereira, I. Rice, and Andrew Crispo Gallery. I. Rice Pereira: Exhibition April 17–May 22, 1976. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1976. Richard Pousette-Dart,Andrew Crispo Gallery. Richard Pousette-Dart: Recent Paintings, March 31–April 28, 1976. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1976. Francesco Scavullo,Scavullo, Francesco, et al. Francesco Scavullo Photographs, American Ballet Theatre. Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1982. and Charles Seliger.Andrew Crispo Gallery, and Charles Seliger. Charles Seliger: Eidolons, 1973–1974. The Gallery, 1974.
A notable feature of the Andrew Crispo Gallery was its prolific publication of exhibition catalogues. These publications were often substantial and profusely illustrated, including essays, artist chronologies, bibliographies, and lists of works held in public collections, and they were intended to position the exhibitions within an art historical framework rather than as purely commercial displays. The catalogues remain cited in archival finding aids and market documentation, reflecting their continued utility as reference material.
Crispo’s professional standing rose dramatically through his relationship with Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen Bornemisza, the Swiss industrialist and one of the most important art collectors of the twentieth century. The two met during one of Crispo’s early major exhibitions, at which the Baron purchased multiple works, and the relationship developed into Crispo’s most significant client connection. Following the death in 1977 of Thyssen Bornemisza’s longtime European dealer Franco Reppetti, Crispo increasingly acted as the Baron’s principal dealer, participating in large scale acquisitions and resales involving major works and substantial sums with contemporary accounts suggesting a nearly 90 million (USD) expenditure by Bornemisza with the gallery over the course of his relationship with Crispo.
Contemporary accounts portray this period as the height of Crispo’s influence within the market. Before his association with Thyssen Bornemisza, he had been considered a marginal figure within elite collecting circles; afterward, he operated at a level comparable to the most powerful private dealers of the era. By the early 1980s, however, the relationship deteriorated amid disputes over payments, delivery of works, and financial exposure. In June 1984, Thyssen Bornemisza severed formal ties with Crispo’s gallery, a rupture that contemporaries described as a profound professional and personal blow and which coincided with the rapid decline of Crispo’s business.
Later years and death In 1989, while Crispo was serving his sentence for tax evasion, his home in The Hamptons suffered a catastrophic explosion due to a natural gas leak. In 1991, a court ordered that the Long Island Lighting Company pay him $7.6 million losses to his home and art collection. He went through bankruptcy proceedings in the late 1990s, while attempting to open a new art gallery, and in 2000, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for extortion, after threatening to kidnap the daughter of a lawyer who had worked on the case; he served five of the seven years.
Following that release, Crispo sought to open another gallery in a space he purchased in a Brooklyn building, but could not raise sufficient funds. By the late 2010s, he was facing additional bankruptcy proceedings and an eviction proceeding for the apartment he resided at in the building. His eviction was suspended from 2020 to 2022, due to a freeze on evictions in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he later filed an appeal against the eviction which was unresolved at the time of his death.
For a time, Crispo owned the historic Pineapple Gate House (known formally as Simmons-Edwards House) in Charleston, South Carolina.