Art world fugitive Michel Cohen, who fleeced dozens of dealers, collectors and Sotheby’s of some $50 million, is apparently alive in France but strapped for cash. A Miami dealer who did business with Cohen for years says he received a call from the missing con man—who escaped from a Rio de Janeiro jail in 2003—in early March. “It was like a ghost from the past who came back to life,” says the source, who insists on anonymity, having been burned by Cohen in 2000 for hundreds of thousands of dollars. “He wanted to borrow money and acted as if nothing had happened between us.” The incredulous dealer immediately called the F.B.I. to report the communication but says he was told that Cohen “can walk like a free man” because France doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the U.S. for certain economic crimes. The dealer did manage, however, to rebuff Cohen’s pleas to get together, saying “What would I gain meeting with a fugitive?”

"Seems Like Old Times" originally appeared in the May 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's May 2008 Table of Contents.