Collector David Geffen Hits Justin Sun with 100-Page Countersuit

Billionaire collector and music mogul David Geffen has unequivocally refused calls from Justin Solar for the return of an Alberto Giacometti sculpture that Solar claims was stolen from his assortment by an worker and bought as a part of an elaborate fraud.

Solar, who is predicated in Hong Kong, filed his go well with in February in New York, the place the sculpture is situated. On Wednesday, the 82-year-old Geffen hit the millennial crypto magnate with a 100-page countersuit.

Solar bought the bronze, metal, and iron Giacometti, titled Le Nez (1949–65), at a Sotheby’s public sale of works from the Macklowe assortment in November 2021 for $78.4 million, working with the help of his former artwork adviser, Sydney Xiong. Solar mentioned he had expressed curiosity to Xiong in promoting the piece for a proposal of at the least $80 million. At the moment, Solar had mentioned on social media that he would donate the sculpture to his APENFT, a web based exhibition area.

The donation was by no means made; nonetheless, the work was lent to the Institut Giacometti in Paris in 2023. Solar says that Xiong executed the illicit sale by way of a scheme of allegedly fictitious attorneys, amongst different events, and falsified paperwork with the purpose of “pocketing at the least tons of of 1000’s of {dollars} for herself.”

Solar accused Xiong of getting exchanged Le Nez for 2 unidentified work from Geffen’s assortment, reportedly value $55 million, and an extra $10.5 million in money. In accordance with Solar, the overall revenue from the sale was $65.5 million, far under the $80 million he reportedly sought. He added in his submitting that Geffen—a member of the ARTnews High 200 Collectors checklist, with a group reportedly valued at $2 billion—shouldn’t have purchased the Giacometti, given the odd circumstances of the sale, together with the involvement of a Chinese language lawyer utilizing a Gmail account.

Solar claims that Xiong confessed to the fraud in Could 2024. In accordance with him, after the exhibition of the Giacometti in Paris, she redirected its transportation from Solar’s storage facility in Singapore to an artwork warehouse in Delaware managed by the artwork sellers David and Cole Tunkl. Solar has demanded the Giacometti again from Geffen, in any other case Geffen should pay what Solar’s countersuit described as “substantial damages.”

The grievance doesn’t include any allegations that Geffen had contact with, or any connection to, Xiong. Geffen’s legal professional, Tibor L. Nagy, chatting with the New York Instances in February, known as Solar’s declare “weird and baseless,” and instructed this was in the end a case of vendor’s regret.

Geffen’s lawsuit described Solar’s submitting as a “sham,” repeatedly denying Solar’s claims.

“In or about November 2024,” Geffen says, “Xiong said on a telephone name with David Tunkl that, because the Tunkls had been unable to promote the Two Work at a excessive sufficient value, Solar meant to rent U.S. attorneys to contrive a lawsuit to stress Geffen to rescind the deal.” Geffen argues that the pair had been determined to promote the Giacometti, given the cryptocurrency market crash-out that came about between 2022 and 2023, and that, compounding Solar’s monetary turmoil, in November of 2023, hackers stole round $115 million from platforms owned by Solar.

Geffen additionally claims that, regardless of looking for consumers for greater than a 12 months, the pair couldn’t make a revenue from the 2 unnamed work included within the deal.

Geffen additionally alleged that Solar had already confirmed himself able to dishonest enterprise: Solar has been sued by quite a few former workers who’ve claimed that he pressured them to have interaction in “unethical and/or unlawful enterprise actions.” 

Solar, who refers to himself as His Excellency on his web site, has drawn scrutiny from the press and federal officers for his enterprise practices. He shelled out $6.2 million at Sotheby’s for Maurizio Cattelan’s Comic (2019), the notorious banana duct-taped to a wall, after which ate the art work at a press convention in Hong Kong. Shortly after, he allegedly pressured the crypto commerce publication CoinDesk to retract an article vital of the publicity stunt. The article examined his troubles with the US Securities and Trade Fee, which in March 2023 charged him and Tron, the blockchain he based, with fraud, amongst different safety violations. As of February, all events had been exploring a decision to the civil fraud case.

The go well with alleged that there have been many inconsistencies in Solar’s story, together with that he deleted WhatsApp messages with the Tunkls about his want to “reclaim” the sculpture previous to submitting his go well with in opposition to Geffen; Solar’s varied authorized representatives had been allegedly given conflicting info on the case, together with particulars about the place the $10.5 million went, and there are two completely different dates during which Xiong is accused of forging Solar’s signature. Xiong’s motivations for the forgery, Geffen says, additionally modified: She first claimed it was a misstep attributable to a deadline, solely later to admit to fraud.

Geffen’s go well with assaults Solar’s core argument that Xiong, who remained listed because the director of APENFT on the group’s web site even after the February submitting, was not concerned along with his artwork assortment. If she was a rogue agent, as Solar claims, why was there by no means a police report filed in opposition to her, the submitting asks.

ARTnews has contacted Geffen and Solar’s authorized illustration for remark. In an announcement to Artnet Information, William Charron, a lawyer for Solar mentioned, “It’s extremely unwise for Mr. Geffen to have staked his case on his proclaimed innocence of Sydney Xiong. Ms. Xiong confessed to her theft, she was arrested in China and is in detention in China as we speak. Regardless of these info, Mr. Geffen goes all-in on the concept that Ms. Xiong was not a thief; that she supposedly spoke for Mr. Solar always; and that she is strolling freely in China as we speak. Mr. Geffen’s pleading is extraordinarily misguided.”

He added: “Extra very compelling particulars will come out via the fullness of this litigation. We eagerly stay up for litigating this case and to recovering Mr. Solar’s property.”