A New York court dismissed a lawsuit by the Judd Foundation against two galleries that irreparably damaged a sculpture by the Minimalist artist. New York’s Tina Kim Gallery, along with Kukje Gallery of Seoul and Busan, Korea, jointly took a Judd sculpture on consignment and left unremovable fingerprints on the sculpture, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in New York in 2022. 

The suit centered on Untitled (1991), one of Judd’s aluminum and plexiglas Menziken boxes, featuring a transparent green acrylic sheet. The foundation first filed the suit in Texas, but it was dismissed because of jurisdiction issues, as the Daily Beast reported at the time, and the foundation filed it again in New York.

The foundation consigned the work to the two galleries to exhibit at the 2015 Frieze New York fair. The agreement between the foundation and the galleries stipulated that the latter were responsible for any damages not covered by insurance. Third parties who inspected the piece while it was in the galleries’ custody noted “potential fingerprints” and “a small blemish.” When the piece failed to sell, it was returned to the foundation’s Marfa, Texas headquarters, whereupon a foundation conservator noted the damage.

In May 2021, Kukje and Tina Kim’s insurance brokers, Arthur J. Gallagher and G.J. Smith and Associates, paid the foundation $680,000, constituting 80 percent of the artwork’s agreed-upon fair market value. The lawsuit asked the galleries to cover the additional $170,000, as well as demanding $100,000 in damages and attorney’s fees.

In dismissing the suit on March 15, Judge Nancy M. Bannon laid out the technicalities of statues that dictate when such lawsuits must be filed, and concluded that the foundation’s complaint “is untimely under any of the above standards,” given the four-year gap between when the damage was discovered and when the suit was filed in New York. She asserts that the clock started ticking not when the gallery paid the 80 percent settlement in 2021, but rather in 2018, when the damage was discovered. (She even noted that, after the discovery of the damage in 2018, “Details of the ensuing 2½ years are thin.”)

“We are committed to defending Donald Judd’s legacy and work,” said Rainer Judd, president of the Judd Foundation, in an email. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision and will be appealing in order to ensure that his art continues to be protected.”

The foundation’s lawyers have been busy lately. Last month they sued Kim Kardashian for claiming that some of the furniture she showed off in a video and claimed to be by Judd was actually just cheap plywood knockoffs.

The galleries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.