A mere 400 feet from the FBI-raided and now shuttered Miami Fine Art Gallery near the corner of Commodore Avenue in Coconut Grove lies something between a museum, a gift shop, and an art gallery. One may purchase an array of colorful items at this destination: Kaws statues, playful donut paintings, pop wall art, canvas totes adorned with happy faces, art coffee table books, Mona Lisa journals, and, of course, underwear donning the message “Sexiest Man Alive.”
Inside the small shop, Coconut Grove window shoppers may procure the next housewarming gift for their art connoisseur best friend or a $2,000 modern sculpture to decorate their new high-rise apartment. This store, opened in October 2024, is the gift shop of Miami Fine Art Gallery, whose owner is Leslie Roberts.
The 62-year-old art dealer, who served prison time in 2015 for selling forged Peter Max art, is currently facing federal charges of money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy after allegedly running an Andy Warhol forgery scheme out of his Coconut Grove gallery. After the FBI raided the gallery in April and indicted Roberts, he boarded it up and closed it…