MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) – The daughter of famed Russian Suprematist painter Nikolai Suetin has agreed to testify in a prolonged dispute between gallery owner Gary Tatintsian and collector Lev Nussberg on works by Kazimir Malevich in the US Supreme Court of New York State, according to materials obtained by RIA Novosti.
Nussberg accused Tatintsian in violating the obligations of several deals. According to a 2006 agreement, the gallery owner was supposed to purchase 95 works of Kazimir Malevich and his followers, including Suetin and Ilya Chashnik, from Nussberg.
The collector, however, claims that Tatintsian did not pay the full price by the due date. A number of other paintings from Nussberg’s collection were handed to the art dealer later, including 98 works in 2009 that were purchased at a below-market price.
Nussberg filed a lawsuit on terminating the 2009 agreement and demanded $2.6 million in compensation.
Tatintsian filed a counter-claim in March 2012, accusing Nussberg of “years’ long fraud” and asking for $62.3 million in amends. The art dealer claimed that some of the purchased paintings turned out to be fakes. In May 2012 he submitted to court an expert report. In April 2013 the US Supreme Court of New York State ruled that Nussberg must pay Tatintsian $2.6 million.
It was earlier reported that the paintings sold to the art dealer came from the family archive of Nina Suetina, who inherited a collection of Malevich’s works after his death in 1935 and acts as a custodian of the suprematist’s “heritage and reputation.” Suetina plans to appear in court in person. According to Suetin’s daughter, the majority of disputed paintings had no relation to her archive.
Kazimir Malevich was a Soviet-born painter and art theoretician, and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.
