Dan's Papers - May 30, 2008

The usual sightings at art gallery openings in the Hamptons include locals, tourists, celebrities, artists and paparazzi. But last Saturday night of Memorial Day Weekend, it also included uniformed police officers.

The openings of two neighboring East Hampton art galleries came to an abrupt halt at 9 p.m., when about nine police cars surrounded them, and East Hampton Village policemen dragged one of the owners away in handcuffs.

In front of a shocked crowd of about 200, Vered, owner of the Vered Gallery, was led to a police car near her downtown gallery and taken to East Hampton Village police headquarters. Guests screamed, "Leave her alone!" as she was handcuffed and led through the crowd to a waiting cop car outside her gallery. She was charged with two violations for the sale of alcohol without a permit, and for no permit for mass assemblage. (Vered, like all other gallery owners, doesn't sell alcohol on the premises, but serves it with hors d'oevres during gallery openings, a long time East End art scene tradition.)

"I've had wine and cheese at my openings for the past 32 years, and no one ever told me I needed these things," said Vered. "In the middle of my opening, when two policeman walked in and asked me to stop serving wine, I told them I would not, because I've been serving alcohol here since before they were born."

She said about six cops came in and "ransacked" her entire gallery, taking all the alcohol from the table, from the closets, and even from her private storage area. Vered said the cops arrested her in front of her daughter and 13-year-old granddaughter, "who was horrified."

Her partner, Janet Lehr, said the way they were notified about needing these documents is "unprecedented" in the small village of East Hampton, which is known around the world as a prestigious arts community.

"Surrounding our business with all these cop cars, and having a half dozen officers invade our big premiere show of fashion photographer Steven Klein on a Memorial Day Weekend, is not the way to get us this information," Lehr said. "This is a wealthy, sexy crowd, and these people saw the police cars and either left our gallery, or were afraid to come in. It hurt our downtown business here on a weekend we all needed it most."

This Steven Klein exhibit, called "Polaroid," was the first major opening of the summer season at this gallery. Klein is known for his celebrity fashion shots of such notables as Madonna, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie - all of which were included in the exhibit.

Wendy Wachtel, owner of the nearby Walk Tall Gallery, said the police also broke up her opening reception for five female photographers.

"It was like a drug bust - my young assistant was hysterical, and she called me to see what to do," said Wachtel, who was not present at the time.

She was also charged for the "sale" of alcohol without a license, and like Vered, will be arraigned on June 25.

"I have also been having many openings with wine and cheese, like other galleries do, and the only thing I was told is that I need to have an adult present who will make sure there is no under-aged youth being served, which we have," she said.

Wachtel said she spoke to an officer on the phone and told him she would cooperate, and get whatever paperwork she needed, if he would just "chill out" and not make a scene at her opening.

East Hampton Village Police did not return calls this week. But East Hampton Village Mayor Paul Rickenback said although it was unfortunate, the cops were just doing their job.

"One of their duties is to check for liquor licenses under the ABC law, and it came time that they had to charge this gallery for not complying," he said. "It's also a place of public assemblage."

But Joan Macri, of East Hampton, who attended the Vered opening, said, "I go to art openings all over the Hamptons where they serve alcohol and hors d'oeuvres, and I've never seen them closed down. If the police want to send out a message about this policy, then they shouldn't single out one or two galleries to do it."

Jim Hayden, a board member of the East Hampton Artists Alliance, said he felt there was no reason for the actions of the police.

"They could have gone to the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce or the business community to discuss this policy, but the way they handled this was completely disruptive to our local village," he said. "How can we work with them this way? It's outrageous."

"I think the problem is that the police here have nothing to do, and they're bored," said Lehr. "On a Memorial Day Weekend, the entire police force was consumed with this. Someone could have been robbing a bank."