New York Museums Conspire to Shut Out Meritorious Artists, Class Action Says

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An iconoclastic New York artist and teacher is challenging several major New York museums for what he argues is an unlawful restraint of the market for contemporary art.

Plaintiff Robert Cenedella filed an antitrust class action lawsuit against five major art museums in New York City – the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

He claims these museums conspire to exclude him and other artists in similar positions from the market for contemporary art both within the U.S. and abroad. On behalf of himself and his proposed Class, he is demanding an award of $100,000,000 – his valuation of the art that he says deserves to be given a proper shot at the art market.

Cendella has been a working artist and art teacher in New York for over four decades, according to this New York museums class action lawsuit. He has earned a reputation as a gadfly to the mainstream art community, constantly calling it out for its alleged obsession for money and fame. He was the subject of the 2016 documentary film “Art Bastard,” which tells the story of his career as a punchy misfit within the New York art scene.

Cendella says the five New York museums are at the core of a “closed system” of museums, galleries and markets. This system drives up the prices of art from only a select few artists, he says. The only artists able to enter this system are those represented by influential galleries, he says.

These galleries decisions are driven solely by interest in profitability and hype, Cenedella claims. He says this system shuts out a vast majority of artists creating meritorious contemporary work, denying them exposure and the living they would earn if their works were properly marketed.

A single exhibition at one of these New York museums or inclusion in their permanent collection can make an artist’s entire career, according to Cenedella. He cites the example of artist Mark Grotjahn, whose paintings’ average selling price nearly quadrupled after his 2014 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

In his own words, Cendella says he’s suing to “expose … the corporate museum cartel for the role they play in the manipulation of the overall art market.” He accuses the defendant New York museums of conspiring to shut out artists.

Cenedella seeks to represent a nationwide plaintiff Class that includes all contemporary artists who, during the applicable statutory limitations period, “have created artwork eligible for exhibition in major contemporary art museums in the United States.”

He seeks a court declaration that the conduct by these New York museums is an unreasonable restraint of trade in violation of the federal Sherman Act and state antitrust statutes, plus a court injunction barring them from continuing this conduct. He also seeks an award of damages, restitution and disgorgement, and recovery of costs of suit.

Cenedella is represented by attorney Robert J. Hantman of Hantman & Associates.

The New York Museums Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit is Cenedella v. Metropolitan Museum of Art, et al., Case No. 1:18-­cv­01029, in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York.