A bitter lawsuit in which the gallery owner Larry Gagosian was accused of selling a prominent collector’s Roy Lichtenstein painting without her permission and making a huge commission on the deal has been settled.
The settlement, reported by The Wall Street Journal and Artinfo.com, is confidential and no terms were disclosed, except that the painting will remain the property of the man who bought it from the Gagosian Gallery, Thompson Dean, a managing partner of a private equity firm.
Mr. Gagosian settled an earlier case involving the same collector, Jan Cowles, 94, but a different artist’s work, for $4.4 million in 2011.
In the Lichtenstein case, Ms. Cowles sued in state court in Manhattan, claiming that in 2008, her son, Charles Cowles, a New York art dealer in desperate financial straits, had tranferred the painting, “Girl in Mirror,†to Mr. Gagosian to sell, even though Mr. Cowles did not own it and had no permission to sell it. The suit contended Mr. Gagosian later fraudulently claimed the painting was damaged and sold it to Mr. Dean for $2 million, less than its market value, taking a $1 million commission on the sale.
The suit revealed frank emails (“Seller now in terrible straits and needs cash,†said one to Mr. Dean from a Gagosian staff member. “Are you interested in making a cruel and offensive offerâ€).
During depositions, Mr. Gagosian was questioned about working both ends of the deal. He said he did not disclose to Mr. Cowles that his gallery had a relationship with the buyer and was asked if he had tried to get a favorable price for that buyer at Mr. Cowles’ expense.
Mr. Gagosian said that he! frequently represented both the seller and buyer in a deal without disclosing that fact to either party.
The Gagosian Gallery called the lawsuit baseless and said its “practices are fully consistent with both the law and the standards in the art world.â€
