A foundation dedicated to the “Godfather of Pop Art” is suing the new owner of the Chelsea Hotel for refusing to return a $250,000 painting, the hotel claiming it was handed over for rent money.
The Larry Rivers Foundation, led by the late artist’s sister Joan Gordon and son Steven Rivers, slapped real estate honcho and hotel head Joseph Chetrit with the Manhattan Supreme Court suit on Tuesday.
Although Rivers lived at the artist haven on West 23rd Street in the 1960s with the likes of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and later a short stay by tragic Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, he only loaned the 8-foot by 6-foot canvas “Dutch Masters” to the hotel in 1998.
It “was prominently displayed in the Chelsea Hotel lobby for years,” the suit says.
Before he died in 2002, Rivers declined a request to donate the piece to the hotel. The foundation says it was gifted the work by Rivers’ estate.
The suit claims Chetrit, who has been accused of harassing residents during the hotel’s renovation, tried to pull the same stunt with the estate of another artist, named Arthur Weinstein.
A judged ordered him to turn over 22 Weinstein paintings, according to court papers. Rivers’ works hang in the Guggenheim, Whitney, Museum of Modern Art and the Met.
Chetrit did not return a call for comment.