In 2009, Robert Wylde of Monaco bought Mark Tansey’s 1981 painting "The Innocent Eye Test" from Manhattan's renown Gagosian Gallery. However, it seems the Metropolitan Museum of Art already had dibs. The museum, where the painting once hung, owns 31 percent of the painting, and the painting's longtime owners promised the museum that it would someday get the other 69 percent.
Wylde's suit contends that he was taken by a gallery salesman to see the painting at the apartment of art dealer Charles Cowles, and was told that the painting was owned by Cowles and had been returned to him by the Met. Wylde was then sent the painting after paying $2.5 million for it, but in the spring of 2010 the gallery called and informed Wylde that the Met already owned a third of the painting. It's unclear if they asked for the painting back, but Wylde still has it and is asking for several million in damages.
Cowels told the Times that the Met had returned the painting to him, and he didn't think to check if they still had a claim on it. “And one day I saw it on the wall and thought, ‘Hey, I could use money’ and so I decided to sell it,” he said. “And now it’s a big mess." Gagosian also said in a statement, "Charles Cowles represented that he had clear title to the painting, which was viewed for sale in his apartment, and the gallery acted in good faith at all times in selling the painting." On the bright side, this will totally drive up the painting's value. It worked for the Mona Lisa, right?
