Help! I Hate My... Dodgy Trading

I recently discovered what appears to be some very unethical trading going on at the commercial gallery where I work, and I honestly don't know what to do about it.

I don’t want to give too many identifying details, but I came across information about some transactions that didn’t seem right. The more I looked, the more uncomfortable I became. It appears that certain people may be benefitting from deals in ways that don’t seem transparent or fair, and there may be a significant conflict of interest involved. I'm not sure whether what I’ve seen is actually illegal, but it certainly feels wrong, and I’m struggling with the fact that I now know about it.

The difficult thing is that this isn’t a huge company where I can simply go to a compliance department or speak to someone completely independent. The people who may be involved are quite senior, and the artworld is small – everyone seems to know everyone, so I’m worried that raising concerns could come back to me very quickly.

Part of me thinks I have a responsibility to say something. If I stay quiet, am I effectively allowing the behaviour to continue? But another part of me is worried about my job and my reputation. I don't want to become known as the difficult employee who made accusations that turned out to be wrong… So what should I do? 

Yikes. I do not envy you, but I would also hazard a guess you’re far from the first person to find yourself in this situation in the artworld, and you won’t be the last in what is a notoriously slippery, ambiguous and unregulated market. Your situation reminds me of the case Orlando Whitfield recounts in his All That Glitters exposé of the artworld’s biggest art fraud – Inigo Philbrick’s $86 million Ponzi-style scheme, selling shares of artwork he did not own. That, however, was firmly in the realm of the illegal, and Philbrick ended up in jail… 

Finding yourself in possession of information that makes you question the ethics of your workplace is an incredibly uncomfortable position, particularly in an industry as small and interconnected as the artworld, as you rightly point out. You are right to take it seriously, but you are also right to be cautious. However, I believe there is a big difference between doing nothing and taking a little time to work out the safest and most responsible way to act.

The first thing I would suggest is that you stop investigating. It is understandable that, having spotted something that didn’t add up, you started looking more closely into things. But you don’t need to become the gallery’s amateur detective – it’s not your job to prove that someone has committed a crime (you don’t mention your role at the gallery, but I don’t think it’s legal). If you do decide to raise the matter with someone, you need to report what you have genuinely observed and allow the appropriate person or organisation to investigate it instead.

Make a private, factual record of what you already know. Note the dates, transactions, documents you legitimately had access to, and what specifically concerned you. Always keep facts separate from assumptions. ‘This transaction took place between X and Y’ is very different from ‘X and Y were deliberately concealing something’. That distinction could become important later, if this does devolve into something bigger.

Also, be very careful about how you preserve information. Don’t take confidential documents home, forward sensitive emails to your personal account or access files you aren’t authorised to see simply because you are worried about what they contain. You want to protect yourself, not inadvertently create another problem.

Your next question is where to take this concern. If your gallery has a whistleblowing policy, complaints procedure, compliance contact, HR function, independent board-member or external adviser, find out what the formal route is. You don’t necessarily have to confront the people you suspect. In fact, if they are senior or potentially involved themselves, doing so could be the least sensible option.

And before you make a serious allegation, consider getting some kind of confidential independent advice. A solicitor with experience in employment or whistleblowing matters can help you understand both your rights and your risks. This is particularly important if you think the conduct could potentially involve fraud, money laundering, tax issues, sanctions, theft or other criminal behaviour. 

I would also resist the temptation to sound the alarm among your colleagues – as you seem to have done so far. You may desperately want to ask someone, ‘Have you noticed this too?’ But once an allegation starts circulating, it becomes gossip and hearsay. Things could easily get out of hand. At the same time, be honest with yourself. Is this genuinely about unethical conduct, or could there be an innocent explanation you haven’t considered? Are you relying on information you only partially understand? Asking these questions doesn’t mean talking yourself out of doing the right thing; it means making sure you aren’t confusing suspicion with fact.

There is, of course, a moral question here: If I know something is wrong and say nothing, am I part of the problem? I think this question applies to so many of us working in different areas across the cultural sector, all the time. But it’s often not as simple as that. You are an employee, not a regulator, investigator or law-enforcement agency. You have responsibilities to yourself as well as to your employer and the wider industry. Equally, don’t let the fear of being ‘difficult’ silence you. There is a world of difference between making a malicious accusation and raising a good-faith concern because something genuinely doesn’t look right. You don’t need absolute certainty before asking for advice. You simply need to be honest about what you know, what you don’t know and why it concerns you. Your discomfort is worth listening to.

Most importantly, don’t sacrifice your entire career in an attempt to become the person who single-handedly cleans up the artworld. If the behaviour is serious, there should be proper mechanisms for dealing with it. Your role is to put the concern in the right hands, not to conduct a crusade. You may ultimately decide that you need to report what you’ve seen. If you do, you can do so calmly and professionally rather than dramatically. And if it turns out there is an innocent explanation after all (I have to say, I find this option unlikely), you will at least have handled your concern responsibly.