The Fight Over Jasper Johns’ “Hairy Testicles”
by Ben Yakas
It goes without saying that most rich folks have a bit of money to throw around on their hobbies—that $1.9 million teddy bear collection isn’t going to amass itself. But sometimes friendships can get in the way of a good thing: billionaire Henry Kravis and multi-millionaire Donald Bryant jointly purchased three Jasper Johns paintings, called “Tantric Detail I-III,” five years ago. But Kravis has now sued Bryant for trying to back out of their arrangement—all because Bryant allegedly doesn’t want the paintings to go to MoMA after they both die.
After they bought the three pieces—estimated to be worth $15 -$25 million—in 2008, the two agreed the paintings would go to MoMA after they died. Until then, they would alternate having them in their Manhattan apartments (they live eight blocks away from each other on the Upper East Side) every year…until this year. In his lawsuit, Kravis claims Bryant refuses to release them unless a new deal is signed that says there is no guarantee the paintings will end up at MoMA. “Egregiously, Mr. Bryant’s proposed agreement entirely disregards, dishonors and repudiates the pledge by Mr. Bryant and Mr. and Mrs. Kravis to gift the Art Works to MoMA — the gift is stricken altogether,†court papers say.
Kravis also claims in the lawsuit that Johns only agreed to sell them because of the promise to eventually bequeath them to MoMA. Kravis’ wife, Marie-Josée, is the president of MoMA’s board, and also a part-owner of the paintings. Bryant, who runs an investment advisory firm (and a Napa Valley vineyard), has a nice art collection built up himself, including a Picasso nude, a Jackson Pollock and a de Kooning. The News notes Bryant was also once a a trustee of MoMA.
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