Art moguls Barbara Guggenheim and Abigail Asher are slinging lawsuits at one another, alleging embezzlement and sexual scandals amidst their public business split.
The women were titans of the art industry, selling high-end paintings to wealthy clients from Steven Spielberg to Tom Cruise for almost four decades before their explosive falling out in 2023.
Asher, 61, filed a legal complaint in July claiming that her former boss and partner encouraged her to sleep with clients, even trying to set her up on dates with ‘older’ prospective buyers, according to a Vanity Fair report detailing the suits’ newest details.
Asher described her 78-year-old mentor as obsessed with ‘gossip, fame, and status,’ alleging in the suit that Guggenheim encouraged her to build a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein for ‘a good source of “rich” contacts’.
She claimed that Guggenheim – who is no relation to the museum family by the same surname – advised her protégé to ‘never go to a client’s home unless she was prepared to sleep with him,’ per the complaint.
In one instance, Guggenheim allegedly advised Asher to ‘wear leather and be provocative’ to sell a Warhol painting, per Asher’s lawsuit.
Guggenheim, meanwhile, alleged in her own lawsuit that Asher used more than $20million of company revenue for personal reasons, and her legal representation told Daily Mail that Asher’s claims were ‘totally without basis’.
Barbara Guggenheim allegedly encouraged her protégé to get close with Jeffrey Epstein and offer clients’ sexual favors
Abigail Asher filed a legal complaint against her former partner
The court documents, first reported by ArtNet, outlined the relationship between the women dating back to 1987 when Asher was just 23 and Guggenheim was already a major player in the art world.
‘As Guggenheim introduced Asher to the art world,’ read the legal complaint. ‘Guggenheim exposed the troubled inner workings of how she ran her life and work.’
While she was still new to Guggenheim’s company, Asher said in her filing that she spoke out against her employer. The filing claimed Guggenheim would shut her down with threats of her ‘secret weapon.’
Those who know Guggenheim told Vanity Fair that this was likely a playful reference to her attorney husband.
‘It should go without saying that art advisors with fiduciary duties to their clients should not become sexually involved with other art dealers or experts who are on the opposite side of deals they are orchestrating for clients,’ said Asher in the lawsuit.
Nonetheless, the filing claimed Guggenheim had intimate relationships with art dealers and collectors whom she ‘manipulated with sex and financial kickbacks.’
The only specific instance of seedy dealings cited in the court documents was a 1989 lawsuit with actor Sylvester Stallone, according to Vanity Fair.
After Guggenheim allegedly sold him a painting with ‘slashes’ in it, he claimed that it wasn’t worth the $1.7 million price tag.
Asher alleged that the painting originally belonged to Guggenheim’s lover who had been unable to sell it.
The suit was eventually settled.
The women began their partnership in 1995 and agreed to share the profits and expenses of Guggenheim Asher Associates 50/50.
Asher (left) and Guggenheim (right) worked together for over 30 years and to outsiders had a successful partnership
Over the course of the next three decades, the women successfully filled the homes of billionaires and celebrities with a close partnership that looked, from the outside, unbeatable.
‘I considered her almost a part of my family,’ Guggenheim told Vanity Fair.
However, after Asher left the company to start her own business in 2023, Guggenheim filed a lawsuit claiming that her partner had stolen $20 million from their business to fund her lavish lifestyle.
Allegedly embezzled expenses included $220,000 for Asher’s home, $20,000 for personal meals and $4,400 for a resort getaway.
Guggenheim also accused Asher of launching her competing business in secret. She asked for $20.5 million in damages.
Asher’s lawyer called the suit ‘a transparent act of retaliation by a disgruntled former partner,’ according to ArtNet.
She rebutted in the suit that it was Guggenheim who had been stealing from company funds and using them for ‘her late husband’s funeral costs, luxury vehicles, and family vacations.’
Asher claimed her partner had been ‘bullying, threatening, and gaslighting’ her for most of her career.
Asher’s lawyers also claimed their business arrangement had no written agreement for her to violate during her departure.
The women ended their partnership in 2023 and have since gone back and forth with legal claims
Guggenheim and her attorneys have disputed Asher’s salacious, ‘outrageously trashy’ claims and said that Asher is only hoping to ‘litigate in the press’ and apply public, rather than legal pressure.
Her attorney filed a motion to dismiss the allegations in September.
‘Ms. Guggenheim and her company have moved to dismiss all of Ms. Asher’s claims as being totally without basis,’ he told the Daily Mail.
In her feature-length interview with Vanity Fair, Guggenheim said the suit was full of ‘vindictive, crazy lies, and exaggerations that were very dismaying to see, very upsetting from someone I had had a relationship with for three decades.’
‘There’s only personal allegations and character assassination,’ she told the outlet.
Daily Mail reached out to Asher’s legal representation for comment.
Other Articles
‘Magnificent show’ will be part of Fine Taste Fine Art event
No Comment! Be the first one.