Mary Boone, the legendary New York art dealer who dominated the SoHo gallery scene in the 1980s, has finally opened up about her prison experience more than five years after her release, describing her time behind bars as surprisingly peaceful. Boone, who was once dubbed the 'queen of the art scene' by New York magazine in 1982, served 13 months of a 30-month sentence for tax evasion before securing early release during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Boone's return to the spotlight comes with the opening of 'Downtown/Uptown: New York in the Eighties' at Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery, an exhibition she helped organize that celebrates the era when she gave breakthrough shows to now-iconic artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner, Keith Haring, and Julian Schnabel. All of these artists are featured in the new exhibition, marking a significant moment in Boone's comeback tour.
In a recent interview with New York magazine, Boone made headlines with her surprisingly positive recollection of prison life. Wearing the same leopard-print Norma Kamali dress she wore for her famous 1982 New York magazine cover shoot, she described her time at Danbury Correctional facility in Connecticut in unexpectedly glowing terms. 'To tell you the truth, I got to go to the gym every day. I read a book a day. It was very relaxing,' Boone said, comparing the experience to what sounds like a wellness retreat.
The art dealer also spoke about the people she encountered during her incarceration, noting that she 'met some very interesting women that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise.' Her choice of Danbury Correctional was not accidental – she specifically requested the low-security Connecticut facility, following in the footsteps of another famous white-collar criminal, Martha Stewart.
Stewart, who served five months for obstruction of justice related to an insider-trading case in 2004, had given Boone advice early in her legal troubles. According to Boone, Stewart warned her to 'get a criminal lawyer early in the case because the government has people they like to use as examples.' While Boone admitted she didn't initially listen to Stewart's suggestion, she apparently took some of her advice to heart later, including requesting the same prison Stewart had wanted for her own sentence. However, unlike Boone, Stewart was denied her request for Danbury and was instead sent to a facility in West Virginia.
Boone's legal troubles began in 2019 when she closed her gallery and was subsequently convicted of tax evasion, leading to her 30-month sentence. However, like Stewart before her, Boone appears to have bounced back remarkably quickly from her prison experience. She told New York's Carrie Battan that she returned to selling art soon after her release and revealed that 2022 was actually her best year on record.
The art market's pandemic-era boom seems to have worked in Boone's favor during her comeback. 'People were staying at home looking at their house and thinking, I need something for that wall,' she explained, referring to the surge in art sales during the COVID-19 lockdowns. This timing proved fortuitous for her return to the art dealing world, allowing her to capitalize on increased demand from collectors who were reassessing their living spaces during extended periods at home.
Boone's story represents a remarkable chapter in the art world's history, showing how one of its most influential figures has managed to reinvent herself after facing serious legal consequences. Her collaboration with Lévy Gorvy Dayan on the 1980s exhibition serves as both a celebration of her past achievements and a platform for her return to prominence in the contemporary art scene.
