A high-powered artwork advisor who labored with Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone is an unethical, abusive liar who slept with shoppers and sellers, bought kickbacks and urged her former associate to whore herself out to shut offers, based on a bombshell lawsuit.
Barbara Guggenheim, 78, who is just not believed to be associated to the famed museum household, as soon as urged her younger worker Abigail Asher — who later grew to become her associate — to “put on leather-based and be provocative” and “that she ought to by no means go to a shopper’s house until she was ready to sleep with him,” Asher alleged.
Asher, 61, was “exploited, managed and threatened by” Guggenheim for practically 40 years earlier than the 2 agreed to separate in 2023 — solely to have Guggenheim spy on her and falsely accuse her of stealing greater than $20 million from their firm, Asher alleged in courtroom papers first reported by ArtNews.
“It ought to go with out saying that artwork advisors with fiduciary duties to their shoppers mustn’t turn out to be sexually concerned with different artwork sellers or specialists who’re on the other facet of offers they’re
orchestrating for shoppers,” Asher stated within the lawsuit.
“However Guggenheim violated this rule — loads.”
Each time Asher, who started working for Guggenheim in 1987, spoke up about Guggenheim’s habits the older girl allegedly “threatened to destroy Asher together with her ‘secret weapon’” — her then-husband, powerhouse Hollywood lawyer Bert Fields, who repped Cruise, Michael Jackson, George Lucas and the Beatles.
In 1995 the 2 agreed to evenly share the corporate’s earnings and bills however Asher stated she was producing excess of Guggenheim, together with practically $20 million in offers throughout their final decade collectively.
She additionally claimed Guggenheim charged their firm, West Village-based Guggenheim Asher Associates, for outrageous bills, corresponding to $3,000 in dance lesssons; an $8,000 spa journey in California; a $12,500 African safari; $36,000 for Fields’ 2022 funeral; $48,000 for a celebration on the Wolfgang Puck-owned Spago in Beverly Hills; and greater than $400,000 for automotive providers.
Guggenheim was additionally identified to ship erratic and “incomprehensible” emails, an instance of “a critical psychological decline, which additional broken relationships,” Asher claimed.
In 2023, the 2 restructured their firm, and as a substitute of equally splitting income and prices, every labored for their very own earnings — a change that despatched Guggenheim’s funds “into freefall,” Asher claimed in her lawsuit.
It’s not the primary time somebody accused Guggenheim of wrongdoing. In 1989, Stallone sued her in Los Angeles for fraud, claiming he shelled out $1.7 million for the portray, “Pieta,” by Adolphe William Bouguereau, and owned by Guggenheim’s pal, Stuart Pivar, who’d been unable to promote it.
Guggenheim was sleeping with Pivar on the time, Asher alleged.
The piece had quite a few “slashes” in it and wasn’t price what he paid, Stallone claimed. The case was later settled.
Guggenheim filed her personal lawsuit towards Asher in August 2024, accusing her of misappropriating greater than $20 million from their enterprise and secretly beginning her personal competing firm.
Guggenheim’s August 2024 lawsuit towards Asher “is a clear act of retaliation by a disgruntled former associate,” stated Luke Nikas, an lawyer representing Asher who stated Guggenheim refused to “retract her false accusations [or] acknowledge her wrongdoing.”
Guggenheim’s lawyer, William Charron, ripped Asher’s allegations as “libelous nonsense.”
“Ms. Asher rolls out a litany of supposedly horrible acts by Ms. Guggenheim. So why did Ms. Asher preserve working together with her for practically 40 years?” the lawyer stated.
“Asher was surprised to see the extent of Guggenheim’s misconduct,” Nikas informed The Publish, noting she was unaware of most of it till she ready her lawsuit.
Asher is in search of unspecified damages, whereas Guggenheim is in search of greater than $20 million in damages.
