SALISBURY — The news that James Meyer was arrested at his home here last week and charged with selling stolen work by the artist Jasper Johns was received with shock and an unwillingness to believe that the results of the FBI investigation into Meyer’s deeds were correct.For the most part, people who know Meyer and his wife, Amy Jenkins, expressed concern for the family and said they felt sure that there must be more to the story and that Meyer couldn’t possibly be guilty.Meyer has lived in Salisbury since the mid 1990s, according to his website, www.jamesmeyerart.com. Neither he nor his wife responded to email offers for him to share his side of the story in an interview. Johns also declined to comment for this article.Meyer, who was born in 1962, had been the studio assistant to Johns since 1985, shortly after he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He was one of several assistants who worked with Johns at his property in Sharon, where the FBI investigation said there is an office, archive and art studio.According to the town’s property database, Johns has owned the property since 1994. He is considered a recluse in town, and is rarely seen outside the walls of his 102-acre estate. The 83-year-old artist is often the subject of gossip and speculation; it is said that the staff at the estate and in the art studio are sworn to secrecy about anything that happens on the property. Meyer and his wife are a more visible presence in the area. Jenkins is a teacher at the Indian Mountain School, and was a member of the Salisbury Central School PTO while the couple’s two children were there. She and Meyer helped found and fund the artgarage at Housatonic Valley Regional High School while their children were students there. The artgarage is an after-school art program in the former Clark Wood Agricultural Education building. Professional artists come to the studio on weekdays during the school year to do their own work and to mentor students.Meyer and Jenkins moved to Lakeville in 1996. Meyer continued to do his own artwork, which has been featured in local shows including one last year at The Hotchkiss School’s Tremaine Gallery.The indictment against Meyer (which can be found online at the U.S. attorney’s office website, at www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/August13/JamesMeyerSentencingPR.php) accuses him of taking almost two dozen pieces from Johns’ studio and selling them with the help of a gallery in Manhattan. The sales allegedly totaled $6.5 million; Meyer is said to have been paid $3.4 million from the sale.The gallery involved in the sales has not been named in the indictment and its identity seems to be a closely held secret.Meyer was arrested in Salisbury on Aug. 14 and appeared in federal court that afternoon. He was then released on $250,000 bond.The specific charges against Meyer are one count of interstate transportation of stolen property (which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison) and one count of wire fraud (which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years). The investigation was handled by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Complex Frauds.The indictment explains the first charge by saying that from at least September 2006 until at least February 2012, Meyer “did transport, transmit and transfer in interstate commerce, goods, wares and merchandise of the value of $5,000 or more, knowing the same to have been stolen, converted and taken by fraud, to wit, Meyer transported and caused to be transported unfinished works of art created by Johns from Connecticut to New York, knowing that they had been stolen.”The second charge is similar and says “Meyer engaged in a scheme to defraud potential purchasers into buying the unauthorized works by, among other things, falsely representing the status and provenance of the artwork.” To do so, he is accused of causing “among other things, interstate emails to be sent from New York, N.Y., to owners of certain art galleries and potential purchasers located elsewhere in the United States and abroad.”The indictment warns that if he is convicted, Meyer will have to “forfeit to the United States … all property, real and personal, that constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the commission of the charged offenses, including but not limited to a sum of money representing the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of the offenses charged” in the indictment.If any property has been transferred to a third party, according to the indictment, or if it “has been substantially diminished in value or has been commingled with other property which cannot be subdivided without difficulty,” then the government will “seek forfeiture of any other property of the defendant up to the value of the above forfeitable property.”There is no information available yet on a court date for the case.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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