In the latest blue-chip art world lawsuit, Hong Kong–based cryptocurrency mogul Justin Sun is suing billionaire collector David Geffen for the return of an Alberto Giacometti sculpture, Le Nez, claiming it was sold out from under him by a rogue art adviser in an elaborate scheme of forged signatures and fictitious lawyers.
Sun, who purchased the Le Nez at Sotheby’s for $78.4 million in 2021, alleges that his former adviser, Xiong Zihan Sydney, orchestrated the sale to Geffen without his consent, fabricating documents and even impersonating a lawyer via email to push the deal through.
Now, Sun wants his sculpture back—“or substantial damages.” Geffen’s attorney, Tibor L. Nagy, told the New York Times, which first reported the news, that the complaint was “bizarre and baseless,” and suggested that Sun simply regrets the deal.
The complaint does not contain any allegations that Geffen had any contact or connection with Xiong. “Deals get done through intermediaries,” Nagy said. “If Mr. Sun is now, a year later, unhappy with the deal his intermediary got him, that’s no basis for a claim against Mr. Geffen.”
Sun’s lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, claims that while he had expressed interest in selling Le Nez for a profit, he never authorized Xiong to finalize any transaction. Nevertheless, she allegedly brokered a deal between January and March of 2024 with Geffen’s representatives, via the art dealers David and Cole Tunkl. The deal saw the sculpture exchanged for two paintings valued together at $55 million plus $10.5 million in crypto—far below Sun’s target price and allegedly without his approval.
Adding to the intrigue, the lawsuit asserts that Xiong used the cash portion of the deal to string Sun along, presenting it as a “deposit” from an imaginary buyer while holding back $500,000 for herself when she transferred the funds from her crypto wallet to Sun’s. Sun claims he only uncovered this in December when he pressed Xiong on the sale’s lack of progress.
The case raises questions about how deals get done in the art world. It bears more than a little resemblance to Russian billionaire Dimitri Rybolovlev’s lawsuit last year against Sotheby’s, whom he accused of fraud in the sales of artworks worth tens of millions of dollars. In that case, Sotheby’s came out clean. The auction house directed much of the blame toward Yves Bouvier, Rybolovlev’s art adviser, who was working to his own benefit as an art dealer behind the billionaire’s back, earning millions in the process.
According to Nagy the litigation is at least misguided. At worst, it’s an attempt to hide reality, and a review of the complaint showed no allegations that Geffen had any contact or connection with Xiong. “Which means said there is no basis to rescind the deal,” he said. “This is exactly how deals get done.”
Sun’s lawyers argue that Geffen’s team should have spotted “obvious red flags” before proceeding—chief among them the lawyer Laura Chang, whom Xiong allegedly enlisted to oversee the sale conducting business via a personal Gmail account. The complaint questions whether the lawyer actually exists.
William L. Charron, a lawyer for Sun, told ARTnews, “Sydney Xiong confessed to theft. She repeatedly forged Mr. Sun’s signature and fabricated the existence of a lawyer. Legitimate art transactions—let alone ones worth tens of millions of dollars—simply don’t occur that way.”
Sun, no stranger to headline-grabbing art transactions, previously made waves by purchasing—and then eating—a Maurizio Cattelan’s banana piece Comedian. Whether he’ll be forced to swallow this latest art world entanglement remains to be seen.
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