BIDDER SUES CHRISTIE’S OVER SAM FRANCIS PAINTING

Bloomberg’s Philip Boroff reports that a battle for a 1954 Sam Francis painting at Christie’s postwar and contemporary auction in New York on May 13 has landed in the courts. Gregory Callimanopulos, a shipping magnate and collector, said in a lawsuit filed Friday in US District Court that Christie’s improperly reopened bidding for the painting, Grey, after his $3 million telephone bid was accepted by the auctioneer.

The suit against Christie’s claims that the auction house later sold the painting, with a hammer price of $3.2 million, to Joanne Heyler, director and chief curator of the Broad Art Foundation, which is funded by collector Eli Broad. According to the suit, auctioneer Christopher Burge announced to the packed saleroom that the painting “sold to the telephone for $3 million.”

But Burge then reopened bidding, the suit claims, because he said a paddle in the room went up as the hammer fell, the suit said. April Jacobs, cohead of Christie’s contemporary sale and the staffer who handled Callimanopulos’s bid, concurred with his account, according to the suit. Callimanopulos seeks a declaration that the work is his, for $3 million, plus commissions. He also seeks attorney’s fees and “other, further and different relief” as the court deems just and proper. Christie’s did not identify the buyer.