New Gagosian Lawsuit Alleges Lichtenstein Switcheroo | Gallerist NY

Gagosian Gets Sued Over Lichtenstein Dispute

News might not have broken last week that the lawsuit between Larry Gagosian and collector Robert Wylde had been settled for $4.4 million if a second lawsuit had not emerged from it. This one was filed last week by lawyers for Jan Cowles, the 93-year-old mother of Charles Cowles who, according to that lawsuit, sold a painting to the dealer by Mark Tansey that was, in fact, partially owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (that painting is now fully owned by the museum). The new lawsuit seeks some $14 million from Mr. Gagosian for various alleged misdeeds in the sale of Roy Lichtenstein's Girl in Mirror, a porcelain-enamel-on-steel work from 1964. It alleges that Mr. Cowles never had the authority to sell the painting, and accuses Mr. Gagosian of misrepresenting the state of the painting when he sold it. Multiple editions of the painting exist, and the complaint, in effect, accuses Mr. Gagosian of using a condition report for another edition of Girl in Mirror as proof that the Cowles version was damaged.

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