Retna.
Photo: Zerojack/Star Max/GC Images
Today, A Dallas-Based Auction House sold off what it CALLED the “Intimate” Contents of the Los Angeles Studio of Retna, A Graffiti Artist Who HieroglyPhic-like Calligraphy Has, Over the Course of Three Decades, appeared on Streets, Museum Walls, The Façade of A Louis Vuitton Store, and the Cover of a Justin Bieber Album. The Pitch from Heritage Auctions was AWKWARD: “If you’ve Ever Visited an Estabished Artist’s Longime Studio, you have essentily taken a Walk Through the artist’s. The Materials for Sale, The Actioneers Note, “Came to Heritage Via a Legal Process.” At the bottom of the online auction page was a clarifying note: the sale was “CONDUCted as an abandaed Property Sale in accordance with California Civil Code §§1980o.”
Yesterday, in the Run-up to the auction, return, whose real name is marquis lewis, filed a lawsuit the art now in the possession of heritage was not, in fact, abandoned but was instead stolen. Acciting to the Complaint, His Form Landlord illegally Seized the Studio’s Contents, Worth Millions of Dollars, after Five-Month Disput Over Rent, Which Ultimately LED to the Artist’s Eviction. “They Have My Hard Drives,” Retna Said on Wednesday. “They Have My Computers, They Have My Notes, They Have My Safe” – Plus About 500 Works of Art.
In the past, retna’s work has sold for as Much as $ 175,000 at Auction; Today, The Biggest-Ticket Item, A Work in Metal and Spray Paint, Went for $ 42,000. But according to retna, Much of what was up for sale – About a Quarter of the 168 LOTS – Are Unfinished Works, Misattributed to Him (Created by Other Artists), or Aren’t artworks at all.
“This isn’t just the mishlandling of an artist’s Career – the desecration of His Legacy,” Said Avery Andon, Retna’s Art Dealer. A piece of canvas the artist offten use as a target wen clearing out his aerosol spray cans was sold as a painting (it went for $ 1,400). One of the Real Paintings, One that Spells Out “I LOVE U” in Pink and Blue Letters, was made by a former girlfriend. IT SOLD FOR $ 5,500. “WHO WOULD LOOK AT THAT,” RETNA ASKED ANDON WENNERS FIRST POSTED, “And Think I Wauld Write ‘I Love You’ on A Canvas With Glitter?”
Retna, who has a reputation for the Combivative Behavior, Said He and His Former Landlord, Victor Ceporius, Had a good -by -way Relationship for a decade, but Ceporius Fll Ill, and a Couple Years Ago Hister, Irena Knorr, Began Managing the Los Angeles Property. The Artist Failed to Pay Two Months’ Rent Between 2023 and 2024, Resulting in a Debt of Roughly $ 180,000, Accorting to the Lawsuit (The Studio, Who Compressed Two Units in the Building, Rentis for Approximately $ 85,000 a Month), Other possessions Inside. AFTH he paid what he owed, retna claims, Knorr Effectatively Held His Work Hostage, Demanding Increasingly Higher Sums. Andon came up with around $ 300,000 to clear an Additional debt Knorr Said Retna Owed – Back Rent as Storage Fees – But Knorr Allegedly Refused to Accept Payment. Andon Said, “when i proudly calmed irene to notify hast ready to wire the funds, she moves the goalposts to $ 450,000 with no explanation, financial breakdown, or accounting.” (Knorr Did Not Respond to A Request for Comment.)
Photo: Heritage Auctions, Ha.com
Acciting to the Lawsuit, this was all part of “a scheme to steal retna’s Valuable Property” and profit from it. The artist’s Lawyer Contest that the Landlord “Never Intended to Resolve The Concerning Rent, Falsely Inflation The Amout Purported Owed, Refused to Allow Retna and Others Acting on His Behalf to Purported Amount Due” So that the Landlord, “With the Assistance of the Assistance,” COULD IL-GOTTEN GAINS FROM FROM BLATANT ART THEFT. ”
An attorney representing Heritage, Armen Vartian, Said he was “satisfied that there is noting unlawful going on times. HERITAGE WOULDN’T BE INVOLVED IN ANYTHING IF IT UNLAWFUL.” He Produced a Court Order from May That Had grant the landlord possession of the materials in retna’s studio and a notice giving the artist 18 days to recalim it. Retna claims he never reciped that notice, spread Because he was Moving houses. He was Also in Jail Around That Time, he Said. (The artist has a long history of Run-ins with the Law, Including for Allegedly vandalizing Damien hirst’s art at a gallery and for Slapping a paparazzo.) VARTIAN DID NOT REPOND TO QUESTIONS ABOUT THE AUTHENTICITY OF PIES FOR SALE.
But Retna’s Lawyer, Brent Blakely, Made Clear That Anyone Who Bowht Work at the Sale Waled Be Alongside Heritage. “Wen a piece of artwork is stolen,” Blakely wrote in an email before the sale, “It remains stolen iF someone lateone unwittingly purchas at an auction.” He hoped, howver, that bidders Wauld be deterred by their conscience: “In my opinion any true of retna’s art Wauld be doing a disnervice not only only to Mr. Lewis, but the entity art community, by participating.”
For the Circumstances, Retna was surprisisingly calm. “This is going to be something something i’m going to have to deal with a very, Very long time,” he said. “There’s a lot of heirloom stuff that was meaningful,” Including a dennis hopper and reciped as a gift from the estate of the actor and artist and artist el MAC MADE OF A LATE FRIEND IN A Casket. The Auction Site, Retna Said, was “Hard to look at.” “There are those things that are Said to be collaborations with artists that didn’t have anything to do with.
Most disconcerting, spread, was the fact that heritage kept reference to the auction as an “Estate Sale.” Whether the material for sale represeted his “soul” or not, he said, “Here’s am Still Alive.”