The surprise shuttering of New York City wine shop Sherry-Lehmann was bizarre — but the liquidation of the business has taken an even weirder turn.
A cache of memorabilia from the iconic vintner in Midtown Manhattan — which shut down in 2023 amid accusations over prize wines that went missing — is now being offered at wildly marked-up prices by a vintage jewelry dealer who previously was busted for selling stolen watches.
Items up for sale on the dealer’s website include a 2001 Grand Cru Bienvenues Batard-Montrachet — a prize white Burgundy — for $4,995.
The catch: It’s an empty display bottle.
The price for a full, unopened bottle averaged $1,033 last month, according to Wine Searcher.
Elsewhere, a 2019 Chateau Bel Air Bordeaux is being offered for $695. The bottle is “mostly sealed, though it may have slightly evaporated over the last five years, as its about two-thirds full,” according to the listing.
“You can buy a brand new Bel Air Bordeaux for $20,” wine expert and author Kevin Zraly, told The Post.
Daniel Posner, who owns White Plains, NY-based Grapes The Wine Co., was similarly baffled by a $495 listing for a bottle of 2018 Lacroix Barton Bordeaux that is “about 60% full”.
“When that bottle is fully sealed, it’s worth $11 – and this one has been open for years,” he said. “There is nothing here that makes sense price-wise.”
The items are part of an estate sale being conducted by APR57, an antiques shop in Midtown Manhattan located at 200 W. 57th St., a few blocks west of Sherry-Lehmann’s now-defunct store.
Sherry-Lehmann’s former landlord sold what was left in the store to APR57’s owner Lee Rosenbloom for “next to nothing,” according to a source with knowledge of the transaction.
APR57’s website says that it “recently purchased the entire inventory of Sherry-Lehmann,” including more than 500 tchotchkes and some booze, although it didn’t disclose the seller.
Rosenbloom, who called himself “Lee the Appraiser” on a WOR radio show he used to host, is no stranger to controversy.
In 2002, he was arrested for allegedly selling a stolen F.P. Journe watch worth $30,000. At the time he told The Post that the cops never bothered to look at the receipt he had for the watch.
Rosenbloom also has landed on New York ABC affiliate Eyewitness News’ “7 On Your Side” consumer watchdog segment four times for allegedly failing to pay consignment customers for jewelry he sold and for not returning valuable items that he was asked to repair.
He appeared in another TV news segment after he refused to let go of a Rolex watch that was brought in to be repaired. He rebuffed the owner for three years until she enlisted the media’s help, according to a Pix11 report in 2018.
Rosenbloom did not return emails and telephone calls seeking comment. His shop — decorated with photos of himself posing with stars like Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Martin Sheen and Kelsey Grammer — was closed for multiple straight business days earlier this month, sources told The Post.
In December, picketers had appeared outside the APR57 store during the holidays, warning customers to stay away, according to a rep at the FedEx store next door.
Meanwhile, the shop’s website is advertising a framed photograph of Andy Warhol at Sherry-Lehmann in 1978 signing a wine bottle.
The price is $925 — wine not included. A scuffed-up, empty green box that used to contain a bottle of Dom Perignon is listed at $295.
Among the odd memorabilia for sale: a construction hard hat with Sherry-Lehmann’s disgraced former owner’s name emblazoned on the front – Shyda Gilmer – priced at $7,900.
The estate sale is the latest chapter in the Sherry-Lehmann saga, which includes an active FBI investigation.
Customers have sued shop claiming they bought contracts for millions of dollars in wine that was never delivered. Others claim they had pricey collections in the company’s storage facility that went missing, as The Post has reported.
Amid the chaos, its owners, Gilmer and Kris Green, abandoned the business leaving millions of dollars of unpaid bills –more than $3 million in unpaid rent alone — and a giant mystery about what happened to the wine that was stored in its Wine Caves facility.
Gilmer and Green did not respond to requests for comment.
Sherry-Lehmann’s former landlord, Hong Kong-based Glorious Sun, could not be reached for comment, according to the firm’s attorney, Edmund O’Brien.
“The brand is pretty much dead,” said one former Sherry-Lehmann employee who did not want to be identified. Another said, “It’s like someone died and this is the estate sale.”
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