5 CULTURE
9 OPINION
Meet the Sophomore Running an Apartment Braiding Business
Overcoming Oppression Through Corrective Education
6 ARTS
11 SPORTS
The New York City Art Scene: An Introduction
NYU Swimmer Breaks Trinidad and Tobago Record
VOLUME LIII | ISSUE 1
SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2019
Italian Princess Sues NYU For Billion-Dollar Art Collection The granddaughter of Sir Arthur Acton, who, along with his wife, owned an extensive art collection left to NYU by their son, is now suing the university for it. By VICTOR PORCELLI News Editor
LISA COCHRAN | WSN
A view of Villa Natalia, on NYU Florence’s campus.
NYU is in a legal battle over its billion-dollar art collection — currently held at its study away site in Florence — with a woman whose mother was the illegitimate daughter of the British art collector who owned it. Sir Arthur Acton was a middle-class British man who married Hortense Acton, a wealthy Chicagoan whose father was a president of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank. The couple lived in Italy, where Arthur used Hortense’s wealth to pursue a career as an art collector and dealer. Hortense paid for the art, as well as Villa La Pietra — a renaissance villa outside Florence now owned by NYU. The university acquired it from their son, Sir Harold Acton, who died in 1994. The source of NYU’s legal trouble, though, is Arthur’s infidelity. Arthur had a mistress with whom he had a daughter. That daughter was Liana Beacci, who began the lawsuit against NYU that her own daughter, Italian Princess Dialta Alliata Lensi Orlandi, has continued after her death. Lensi believes that her mother deserved a portion of the estate left to Harold Acton, some of which is now owned by NYU. However, the court has not touched on the inheritance aspect of the case. After over two decades of litigation, a court has just confirmed that Liana was, in fact, Arthur’s daughter, which was previously being disputed. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
2018 Stern Grad Arrested for Insider Trading By VICTOR PORCELLI News Editor An NYU alumnus was arrested for insider trading earlier this month after allegedly leveraging private information to make almost $100,000 off the stock market, according to court documents. Bill Tsai — who graduated from the Stern School of Business in 2018 and served as Stern Student Council
President his senior year — worked as a junior analyst at the investment bank RBC Capital Markets after graduating. Through his job, Tsai learned that the private equity firm Siris Capital Group would buy Electronics for Imaging, a digital printing technology company. Using a brokerage account with a firm that was not permitted under his employment agreement with RBC, Tsai bought 187 stocks of EFI before it was announced that Siris acquired them,
court documents claim. Using non-public information that may have an impact on stock prices — such as the fact that EFI was going to be bought — to buy or sell stocks is illegal. Tsai’s prior knowledge, gained only through his work at RBC, allowed him to buy EFI stocks when they were low, knowing he could sell them high after it was announced they had been bought by Siris. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
MARVA SHI | WSN
Former USWNT Goalkeeper Prepares for Fifth Season Coaching at NYU READ MORE ON PAGE 10