The Rise and Fall of Art Mogul Louise Blouin

As the company struggled, she leveraged the Hamptons estate. The limited liability company associated with the main house, 376 Gin Lane, received a $15 million loan from Morgan Stanley in 2011, according to public records. At around the same time, the second house, 366 Gin Lane, got an $8.5 million infusion from Wells Fargo.

In 2016, Ms. Blouin put La Dune on the market. Asking price: $140 million. When there were no takers, she arranged to receive another $26 million in loans from a lender, JGB Management.

Over the next few years, because of heavy interest, the amount she owed JGB grew to $36 million. In the fall of 2021, JGB sued Ms. Blouin and attempted to place La Dune into foreclosure.

Around the same time, the I.R.S. informed Ms. Blouin that she owed six years of unpaid payroll taxes and penalties from Louise Blouin Media and another company she owned, ArtNow. In 2021, agents delivered her bills totaling more than $10 million, court records show. Ms. Blouin responded in an affidavit that she should not be held responsible for the debt.

“At some point in time, I was a shareholder,” Ms. Blouin said in the affidavit. “While one of the companies bears my name, I was never a director, manager or employee.” Unmoved, the I.R.S. placed liens on the two Gin Lane properties, totaling at least $4.7 million, according to court filings by Ms. Blouin.

In 2022, she retained Bay Point Advisors, which took over the loan from JGB Management. Then it assumed the debt on the Morgan Stanley loan, which had not yet been paid off.