Mr Lerner denies wrong doing, and said all billing had been disclosed and were made in accordance to Mr. Twombly's wishes when he was alive.
Mr. Lerner is co-author of Art Law: The Guide for Collectors, Investors, Dealers & Artists.
The NY Times reports
Source: NY TimesOne of the most prominent art-world lawyers in New York, Ralph E. Lerner, was accused on Wednesday, in an ongoing court case filed in Delaware, of fraudulently taking at least $750,000 in fees from the foundation of the artist Cy Twombly, who died in 2011.
The accusation was detailed in a lawsuit filed earlier this year alleging serious misconduct over the past two years in the handling of the money and works that Twombly left behind. In the latest development, lawyers for the Cy Twombly Foundation asked the court for permission to name Mr. Lerner as a defendant in the lawsuit. The new papers claim that Mr. Lerner, as the secretary and a director of the board of the foundation, charged the foundation unauthorized fees for legal services and hid those charges from other members of the board by having the bills mailed to a post office box in New York and a corporate address in Delaware, and arranging wire transfers that sidestepped oversight by the foundation’s accountants.
In March, the foundation’s president, Nicola Del Roscio, who was Twombly’s companion; and its vice president, Julie Sylvester, a curator and Twombly expert, filed the suit. They said that Thomas H. Saliba, another of the foundation’s four directors, took unauthorized fees for investment services, aided by Mr. Lerner, who was not initially named as a defendant. The suit said that Mr. Lerner and Mr. Saliba worked together in 2012 to have Twombly’s artwork in a separate trust appraised at a sharply inflated value of more than $1 billion. Those two men continue to administer that trust, which is registered in New York, and a higher valuation would pad their commissions.
Regarding unauthorized charges, the new papers say that Mr. Lerner “even charged legal fees for merely attending board meetings as a director,” adding that “no other board member received (or was entitled to receive) compensation (much less at the significant rate of $950 an hour) for attending board meetings or reviewing and editing the board meeting minutes.”
In February, Mr. Lerner filed a lawsuit in the same Delaware court, asking a judge to intervene in the foundation’s dispute, saying that it had become deadlocked. His complaint asked that Twombly’s son, Alessandro, be allowed to join the board to break the deadlock. The suit by Mr. Del Roscio and Ms. Sylvester describing misconduct states that Mr. Lerner’s request was a ploy to outmaneuver them.
The legal battle echoes many that have erupted in the past two decades over estates and within authentication boards for highly regarded artists — Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg — as prices for art have skyrocketed and accusations have flown regarding ownership, valuations, authenticity and the fees and commissions that such work generates.
Mr. Lerner’s law office, in a statement, said that all fees for his legal services “were made in accordance with the practices and procedures established by Mr. Twombly when he was alive.” These fees, the statement said, were disclosed in regular financial statements provided to other board members,” and the “claims against Mr. Lerner therefore have no merit.”
The lawyer for Mr. Del Roscio and Ms. Sylvester, David R. Baum, said in a statement, “Lerner has been hiding these bills for a year, and now we know why.”
Mr. Lerner is the author, along with Judith Bresler, of the multi-volume “Art Law: The Guide for Collectors, Investors, Dealers and Artists” and has represented major art-world entities including the Sonnabend estate and the Gagosian Gallery, as well as important collectors like Steven A. Cohen, the hedge-fund billionaire.
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