Plea deal means no jail time for art dealer

A prominent art dealer who pleaded guilty to laundering drug money will serve no jail time under a plea deal filed last week in federal court.

Nathan Isen, 61, of Villanova, was sentenced to three years of probation, 320 hours of community service at a Wynnefield senior center, a $15,000 fine, and forfeiture of $20,000 — money he took from an undercover agent and never recorded in his gallery's books, according to a sentencing document.

The Department of Homeland Security began investigating Isen after arresting his Villanova neighbor, Ronald Belciano, in a marijuana distribution case. A search of Belciano's home in 2011 turned up $2.6 million hidden in a fish tank and artwork valued at $619,000 that he said he had bought from Isen.

When an agent went into Isen's shop, the I. Brewster & Co. gallery on North 21st Street, with cash in a paper bag, he offered to keep the woman's name off invoices, advised her how to sell the art in a hurry, and did not object when she said the money came from selling drugs, according to the sentencing memorandum.

— Jessica Parks