Aldon James caught in National Arts Club controversy

Schwartz for News

Aldon James will take his eccentricity elsewhere after the National Arts Club voted him out of the organization toward the middle of March.

Aldon James has resurfaced at the National Arts Club, but it's the new security guards that have members talking.

A source close to the situation says the controversial, bird-loving, bow-tie-wearing ex-leader of the 113-year-old organization made his first appearance in the ornate Gramercy Park club's dining room on Tuesday night since abruptly stepping aside as president in the wake of an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

On the night of March 14, the club's board held an emergency meeting at which they reportedly decided James would step down after 25 years heading the NAC to take a "well-earned vacation." Vice President Dianne Bernhard was named acting president. (Our source says James' autocratic ways made him "the Hosni Mubarak of Gramercy Park," but adds that even members who "are against him" concede he revitalized the club.)

The regime change reportedly came after the NAC's bookkeeper was questioned by the district attorney's office.

Our source says, however, that James, who lives in one of the club's apartments, may not have gone anywhere.�

On Tuesday, he was spotted at a dinner party hosted by White Shoulders fragrance heiress Baroness von Langendorff in the club's dining room, but our source says his demeanor was more sober and muted than when he rang in the New Year with the baroness just months earlier.

Wednesday, an exec at the Planet PR publicity firm who saw James at the dinner tweeted that despite being among "loyal friends," the ex-NAC president looked "forlorn & distracted."
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James "left before dessert," says our source. About the time he exited, Bernhard huddled with board members and advisers at the other end of the dining room, where they discussed whether to hand over club records before the district attorney subpoenaed them.

A few feet from the group stood a bodyguard from GSS Security Services. According to our source, early last week GSS guards began manning posts inside the club and at its entrance and exit.

GSS' website describes the NYC company as being expert at handling "thievery, embezzlement and loss prevention."

Bernhard did not respond by deadline, but an NAC board member suggested that GSS' presence is connected to the "ongoing investigation that requires the club inventory its assets and artwork."
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"I think it's going to be a great new day at the club with increased transparency, but first we have to figure out where we are," said the board member, adding: "We're housecleaning."

Contact Gatecrasher:
Frank DiGiacomo: fdigiacomo@nydailynews.com
Carson Griffith: cgriffith@nydailynews.com
Molly Fischer: mfischer@nydailynews.com

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