Peggy Guggenheim was one of the most influential collectors of Modern art in history. She left her art collection and Venice home, as a public foundation securing the legacy of her contribution to the history of art. A bitter lawsuit has now broken out over the collection amassed by the socialite. This will now be heard in a Paris court today.
The feud, which dates back more than 20 years and concerns the collection. Relatives of Guggenheim, who died in 1979 at the age of 81.The Guggenheim Foundation is now being sued in court by the grandchildren of the former patron. It is yet another chapter in the saga which has lead to a family feud since 1994 when the grandchildren’s case was dismissed by a French judge sitting at the same Paris tribunal court.
Sandro Rumney and his half-brother Nicolas Hélion are attempting to prove that their grandmother’s wishes have been ignored. They stated in papers recently filed that the Guggenheim Foundation in New York has exhibited 181 works at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, that are not part of the permanent collection. It was stated in Guggenheim’s will that only work from the collection was to be displayed in the main house and works not belonging to the collection were only to be temporarily displayed in out buildings.
In addition, complaints have been lodged that the museum’s garden, which inters their grandmother’s ashes has been “desecrated” by receptions held in the garden. The garden was recently renamed the “Nasher Sculpture Garden” after a donation from a patron of the museum. This is also something the grandchildren object to. The new lawsuit demands that the Nasher donation to the foundation be revoked and the name be taken off of the garden. “
The powerful Guggenheim Foundation has retorted the “baseless allegations” in the lawsuit. It stated that the two grandchildren are “not her heirs and are not mentioned in her will” . Peggy Guggenheim’s estate was left to Sindbad Vail, a son from her first marriage. The American heiress bought much of the art in Paris before the Second World Wa. It includes paintings by Picasso, Ernst, Klee, Braque, Chagall, Kandinsky, Dali and Miro and Pollock.