Renowned sculptor Jeff Koons and art dealer Larry Gagosian have settled a $13 million dispute with a multimillionaire investor who claimed Koons never gave him three sculptures he commissioned, court papers said Friday.
Steven Tananbaum — the head of the $24 billion GoldenTree Asset Management hedge fund — claimed in an April 2018 lawsuit that he paid $13.05 million beginning in 2013 for the artist to make him the pieces, which he never received.
Gagosian later countered in the suit that Koons is a “perfectionist” who sometimes takes years to make his works.
Tananbaum first put a $6.4 million deposit down for Koons to make him an 8.5-foot-by-5.4-foot magenta, polished steel sculpture called “Balloon Venus” in September 2013. He expected to get the work by the end of 2015, his suit said at the time.
In 2016, Tananbaum also commissioned two other sculptures to be titled “Eros” and “Diana” that would be worth $14.5 million and which he put down $6.65 million toward but never received, he alleged.
Now, the case has been settled according to an agreement filed in Manhattan Supreme Court Friday.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed and it was not immediately clear if Koons had made the pieces for Tananbaum.
The Gagosian Gallery and Koons said in a joint statement, “Mr. Tananbaum is a passionate collector, and we look forward to our continuing relationship.”
Tanabaum said in a statement that he “continues to be a proud collector of works by Mr. Koons, whom he considers one of the most important living artists today.”