George Weiss Defends $36.5 Million Monet Sale to Undisclosed Buyer

Bankrupt hedge fund manager George Allen Weiss defended his attempt to sell a Claude Monet painting to an undisclosed buyer for $36.5 million after Jefferies Financial Group Inc. pressed him to provide information.

Weiss said he spent 15 months marketing Monet’s “Nymphéas” oil painting, dated between 1914 and 1917, and that the proposed buyer isn’t an “insider.” His statement, filed Oct. 24 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, follows a judge’s order last month requiring him to disclose any ties to the buyer and describe his marketing efforts.

“Counsel to the buyer has provided my ...