Judge OKs Collector\'s Lawsuit Against Gagosian

September 20, 2012, 4:10 pm

By RANDY KENNEDY

A New York state judge ruled Thursday that a lawsuit claiming that the art dealer Larry Gagosian defrauded a prominent collector can go ahead.

The collector, Jan Cowles, 93, sued in January, accusing Mr. Gagosian of selling a 1964 Roy Lichtenstein painting, “Girl in Mirror,” from her collection without her consent.

In 2008 Mr. Gagosian visited Mrs. Cowles's apartment in her absence with her son, Charles Cowles, a longtime art dealer, to see the Lichtenstein. Mr. Cowles was then in deepening financial trouble and discussing possible sales with Mr. Gagosian. In court papers the Gagosian Gallery has said that Mr. Cowles maintained dishonestly at the time that he had permission to sell his mother' s Lichtenstein painting. Mr. Gagosian took the painting on consignment, saying that he believed he could get $3 million for it and would take a $500,000 commission. (Another version of the painting had sold at Sotheby's in 2007 for slightly more than $4 million.)

But the painting was eventually sold for only $2 million after assertions by the gallery â€" now disputed in court by Mrs. Cowles â€" that it was damaged, and Mr. Gagosian made an unusually high commission on the deal, $1 million. The case has attracted attention in part because of emails and other documents that have been made public, revealing frank details of how the painting was offered to a collector, Thompson Dean, a managing partner of a private equity firm, as a bargain. “Seller now in terrible straits and needs cash,” said one e-mail to Mr. Dean from a Gagosian staff member. “Are you interested in making a cruel and offensive offer? Come on, want to try?”

In his decision Thursday, Judge Charles E. Ramos of New York State Supreme Court denied Mr. Gagosian's motion to dismiss the case, saying that, among other considerations, Ms. Cowles's allegations “sufficiently state a cause of action for fraud.”