Sotheby’s is being sued by a furious art collector who claims the famed auction house is reneging on a deal to buy back his $1.5 million painting — that could be a fake.
Financier Charles Cahn, says the top auction house sold him the work —”Portrait de Leopold Zborowski” attributed to Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani — in 2003, but later learned that the piece may have been inauthentic.
To assuage the likely irate customer, Sotheby’s penned a deal with Cahn agreeing to put his painting back up for auction if he ever wanted to sell it before 2031, according to the suit filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“Sotheby’s has failed to accept consignment, to sell the painting at auction, and to pay Cahn the amount owed,” states the suit — which seeks $2.6 million in damages.
Cahn claims he sent the auction house two letters since June asking it to make good on the 2016 agreement, but has yet to receive any response.
He bought the alleged Modigliani piece at auction in 2003 for a total price of $1.55 million,
But in 2016, Sotheby’s itself called into question the authenticity of the painting, stating that it “failed to satisfy certain criteria” and that it “would have no sale value in the international art market,” the suit said.
Under the agreement with Cahn signed that year, Sotheby’s promised to re-sell the painting for him, guaranteeing to pay at least his original price plus interest, court papers state.
If Cahn decided to sell the work before 2031, Sotheby’s would offer the painting up for auction and pay him either his original purchase price — plus compounded annual interest — or the auction price, whichever would be higher, the filing says.
In exchange, Cahn would agree to release Sotheby’s from “any and all claims in connection to the painting,” the suit states.
Cahn sent a letter to Sotheby’s in June seeking to activate the deal, asking the auction house’s senior vice president Simon Shaw “how to proceed,” but got no response, the lawsuit claims.
Another letter in September was sent, lawyer-to-lawyer, noting that “Sotheby’s failure to even respond to Mr. Cahn’s letter suggests that it may not intend to comply with its obligations under the Agreement,” adding, “We trust that is not the case.”
The letter ended with an ultimatum that if Sotheby’s failed to respond, Cahn would “take all appropriate legal action.”
Sotheby’s catalog says that the circa-1917 work was once owned by Léopold Zborowski, who was Modigliani’s primary art dealer and bought it directly from the artist.
The painting was first sold by Sotheby’s in 1960, and was exhibited in Brussels and Basel in the 1930s. Sotheby’s later re-acquired it from the Perls Gallery in 1992.
Just weeks ago, Sotheby’s moved from their old digs on First Avenue to the famed Breuer building on swanky Madison Avenue, which it purchased in 2023 for $100 million.
Sotheby’s spokesperson Blair Rosenberg told The Post the auction house “does not comment on pending litigation.”
Representatives for Cahn did not respond to a request for comment.
