Metro

Artist sued for ‘subletting’ loft on Airbnb

An artist has been getting rich off her rent-stabilized Tribeca pad by turning it into a tourist destination through Airbnb — while also owning an East Village condo, her landlord charges in a lawsuit.

Eileen Hickey — whose artwork has appeared in films including 2010’s “Eat Pray Love” — was sued in Manhattan court Monday by landlord Robert Moskowitz, who says he wants her out of the two-bedroom Tribeca loft.

Moskowitz also wants a share of the money he says she has raked in from the 1,800-square-foot Greenwich Street apartment.

The Tribeca loft Hickey illegally subletted at 460 Greenwich Ave.David McGlynn

The suit says she pays $1,463.79 a month while taking in $4,500 a month through rentals on the apartment-sharing Web site Airbnb, whose short-term sublets are illegal in New York.

Since Hickey listed the unit on Airbnb in 2012, she has had guests from countries like the UK, Australia and the Netherlands, the suit says.

Hickey knew what she was doing was illegal, the landlord says in court papers, because she told a guest in May 2013 that “if anyone asks about this transient renting subleases that [she] should state that she is Eileen Hickey’s friend.”

Moskowitz told his lawyer he caught Hickey red-handed when a subletter from Spain strung up a banner from the unit’s fourth-floor fire escape to welcome friends.

“We said, ‘What’s going on here?’ ” attorney Carl Peluso told The Post. “Then we started to check out what was on Airbnb and other Web sites.”

Peluso says he found the former Guggenheim Museum curator had taken out a $470,000 mortgage in 2010 with her husband for an East Village condo through the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Hickey’s Airbnb posting.

“Hickey represented on the mortgage that Unit 7 of 5 E. Third St. was her primary residence, all the while enjoying rent-stabilized status in the fourth floor of 460 Greenwich St.,” he says in court papers.

On an Airbnb profile, Hickey boasts of her rental unit’s “superb location . . . in the heart of Tribeca and steps from Spring Street.”

Frank Ricci, of the Rent Stabilization Association, a trade group for landlords, said Hickey’s second apartment and the Airbnb subletting are both grounds for eviction.

“What’s troublesome is all these tenant advocates are always painting a picture out there that all these poor rent-stabilized tenants need protection, yet they have second homes,” Ricci said. “It’s just a big scam at the expense of all the other legitimate tenants.”

Hickey removed her Airbnb listing after the landlord threatened to sue to evict her.

Her attorney declined to comment on the new suit, saying she had not yet seen it.