New York’s Jack Shainman Gallery has sued collector James R. Hedges IV, alleging that he owes nearly $300,000 for the sales of 19 artworks that the gallery had consigned to him.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on Friday, claims that Hedges and his gallery, the Santa Monica–based Hedges Projects, were consigned these works via invoices dated between June 2022 and May 2024. Hedges and his gallery are accused of owing $298,772.72.
Hedges has called himself “the go-to guy for Warhol photography,” claiming in his biography that he owns the biggest private collection of photographs by the Pop artist. He has curated shows of Warhol’s photographs, including one in 2020 at Jack Shainman Gallery held prior to the onset of the pandemic in New York. He also staged a selling show of Warhol’s art with Gagosian gallery in 2022.
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The son of a collector of self-taught artists, Hedges focused full-time on art starting in 2013, the year that he departed the world of investment banking, according to the Art Newspaper. In addition to collecting art, he has served as a trustee to the Dia Art Foundation and has been a patron of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado, and the Tate museum network in the UK. He is currently curator for the arts at the the Hotel Bel-Air and the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows in Los Angeles.
Jack Shainman Gallery was founded in 1984 and currently represents artists such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Kerry James Marshall, Nina Chanel Abney, and Rose B. Simpson. In January, the gallery opened a new 20,000-square-foot space in Tribeca.
Friday’s lawsuit did not detail the artworks Jack Shainman Gallery had consigned to Hedges and his gallery, noting only that the two were supposed to sell these works to collectors. According to the suit, Hedges and his gallery “kept and used those funds for their own purposes and benefit.”
“Hedges Projects is saddened to learn about the lawsuit filed by Jack Shainman Gallery,” the gallery said in a statement. “Hedges Projects and Jack Shainman Gallery have had a successful business relationship since 2018. It is unfortunate that Jack Shainman Gallery decided to file a claim while the parties are in the midst of business negotiations. We strongly disagree with the claim, and plan to assert counterclaims of our own, if necessary.”
A representative for Jack Shainman Gallery declined to comment.