A conservation group is hauling art collector and real estate kingpin Aby Rosen to court Friday to prevent him from tearing an iconic Picasso painting off the wall of the Four Seasons hotel.
The New York Landmarks Conservancy, a not-for-profit, fears that if Rosen moves the 20-by-22 foot, 95-year-old artwork from out of the Park Avenue hotel this Sunday as planned it will “crack like a potato chip.” The group says Rosen called Picasso’s “Le Tricorne” a schmatte or a rag in Yiddish because he favors pop artists like Andy Warhol, Damien Hurst and Keith Haring.
The German-born developer’s firm RFR Holding owns the historic Seagram Building where the hotel is located.
The conservancy accuses him of making up a story — that the painting needed to be removed to fix a deteriorated wall — to get rid of the $1.6 million canvas.
“Rosen’s insistence that the Picasso Curtain be removed is Mr. Rosen’s own admitted dislike of the Picasso Curtain,” the conservancy huffs in court papers.
Rosen first notified the conservancy in November 2013 that he planned to “permanently remove’ the artwork from the lobby of his building because of a leaking stem pipe, the suit says.
But he allegedly refused to hand over engineering reports documenting the problem.
In December the real estate mogul, who also owns the Lever House on Park Avenue, sent the conservancy a letter from an engineer stating that the wall behind the painting “required emergency repairs.”
The conservancy had its own expert inspect the area and he found “no evidence” of water damage.
Picasso painted Le Tricorne as stage prop for a touring ballet in 1919. It was gifted to the not for profit in 2005 with the condition that it be exhibited at the Four Seasons.
The conservancy’s Manhattan Supreme Court suit against Rosen notes that his company’s website brags about the painting in a section entitled “World Class Luxury.”
“With its modernist grandeur, huge Picasso in the lobby and white glove service, the world famous Four Seasons restaurant just an elevator away, 375 Park Avenue has an exclusive ‘clubby atmosphere.”
The giant canvas has hung in the Four Seasons for 50 years in a part of the hotel dubbed “Picasso Alley,” the suit says.
The group argues that the inside of the hotel, including Picasso Alley, is landmarked and cannot be changed without its approval.
A conservancy expert said moving the work from its present site poses a “significant risk of stress and damage to the paint layer.”
A rep for Rosen did not immediately comment.