Charges and countercharges are flying in the art-photography world, with the son of pioneering lensman Ralph Eugene Meatyard suing a powerhouse Manhattan gallery for $7.5 million over “missing” prints.
Christopher Meatyard filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court last week against top photography dealer Howard Greenberg, who runs a gallery on East 57th Street.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who died in 1972, is a seminal figure in the art-photography world. In 1988, his son Christopher signed a contract with Greenberg to be the exclusive dealer for Meatyard’s prints.
The lawsuit says that over the next several years, Christopher, who lives in Lexington, Ky., sent Greenberg thousands of prints. But in 2001, he broke off relations with the dealer, questioning his accounting, and demanded the return of all the unsold prints. The suit charges that Greenberg failed to return hundreds of prints.
Greenberg denies having possessed the pictures Christopher claims he didn’t return. “It’s not true at all,” he said.