Alexander Calder’s grandson allegedly torpedoed the $8 million sale of one of the famed sculptor’s pieces in order to “control and manipulate” the lucrative market for his grandpa’s art, a collector claims in a new lawsuit.
Alexander Rower lied about the condition of the glass and wire mobile owned by Richard Brodie in a “scheme” to scuttle the sale, Brodie contended in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit.
Brodie purchased the mobile in 1994 from a friend of the sculptor for an undisclosed sum and had a Japanese buyer lined up for it in 2019 willing to pay $8.1 million, after an appraiser at the The Calder Foundation determined it was in good condition, according to legal papers.
But Rower, who is the president and founding director of the foundation, contradicted his own expert’s opinion, allegedly telling them “to state that the mobile had suffered irreparable damage at some unknown point,” according to the lawsuit.
Brodie tried again last year to sell the mobile, only to have the foundation allegedly rescind its authentication of the work and declared its “substantial damages” would be “impossib[le] to restore.”
The foundation, which has assets of $665 million, makes money off the sale of Calder’s works, and the false claims about the mobile were “part of a racketeering scheme by him to . . . to control and manipulate the market for Calder artworks through acts of fraud,” Brodie maintained in the filing.
Calder’s mobiles have sold for millions, including one that fetched over $8.5 million at Christie’s in November.
Calder, who died in 1976 at age 78, was best known for his paintings and mobiles which utilized carefully orchestrated weighting to balance, move and suspend each piece in the air.
The Calder Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.