Art collector sues Princeton University for backing out of $1 million deal

A New York City art collector has filed a lawsuit against Princeton University for breach of contract related to artworks the school agreed to buy in 2018.

Princeton University allegedly agreed to pay art collector Vincent Fay just under $1 million for 17 pieces of art. The school paid him $472,500 in December of 2018, and the other half was to be paid in June of 2019, according to the lawsuit.

But in June of 2019, school officials began to have concerns about the authenticity, provenance, and value of at least seven of the works, according to the lawsuit. The school did not pay the second installment, and school officials wrote in an email that month that the second payment would not be made until they were satisfied the works were authentic. In October of 2019, school officials also demanded that the first payment be returned.

Fay claims in the lawsuit that the university has not provided any evidence that he breached his warranty in the deal. He also claims that none of the school’s concerns have been documented or supported by any named experts, and that regardless of whether the concerns are well-founded, the agreements drafted by the university only asked that Fay warrant that the works were authentic to the best of his knowledge.

Beginning in the 1960s, Fay, who is now 78, acquired numerous pieces of art outside the United States that later became valuable, according to the lawsuit. Many of the works have been included in museum exhibitions, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Louvre Museum, the Museo del Barrio, Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Art, Williams College, and other museums.

Fay claims to his knowledge, the works he sold to the university are authentic. In the lawsuit, he is seeking the second payment plus interest, as well as attorney fees.

The university has declined to comment on the case.