Gagosian and Perelman urged to settle dispute

Prominent art-world figures and institutions have become embroiled in the ongoing lawsuit between the financier Ronald Perelman and the dealer Larry Gagosian. Perelman’s lawyers have asked the auction houses Phillips and Sotheby’s, the investor-collectors Alberto, José and David Mugrabi, the artist Jeff Koons and the New York-based Sonnabend Gallery to provide documents that may shed light on a series of disputed deals stretching back to 2010. Members of the Mugrabi family testified in September, but according to court papers, Perelman’s lawyers last month agreed to withdraw their request that Koons and Sonnabend Gallery testify (but stood by their request for certain documents). Judge Saliann Scarpulla of New York State Court encouraged Perelman and Gagosian to resolve the dispute before it goes to trial next summer.