NYC gallery says $1m worth of art destroyed by water leak at CubeSmart storage facility

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Louise Thomas

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A New York City art dealer with galleries in Manhattan and the Hamptons says a year-long water leak at one of his storage facilities left some $1 million worth of irreplaceable works completely ruined by black mold.

In a terse lawsuit, obtained by The Independent, Eric Firestone claims CubeSmart managed to conceal the situation from him until one of his employees showed up and discovered the trashed pieces.

The suit doesn’t provide specifics, but describes the lost pieces as “valuable works of fine art… that, due to their unique nature, are irreplaceable.”

CubeSmart executives did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday and Thursday from The Independent.

An Arizona native who moved east in 2010, Firestone specializes in “significant yet under-recognized artists from the 20th and 21st centuries,” according to his official biography.

“Anybody can pick a front-runner,” he told The East Hampton Star, saying he was more interested in artists “who haven’t been fully investigated.”

One of them, late abstract expressionist Joe Overstreet, had a solo show in 2018 at Firestone’s gallery space, where his canvases were described as “exuberant, groundbreaking creations” by New York Times critic Roberta Smith.

In 2017, Firestone rented storage space for a collection of high-end art at a CubeSmart in Tucson, according to the lawsuit which was filed Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court. Six years went by, without incident. But in July 2023, the facility sprung a leak and, unbeknown to Firestone, the items in his unit were set on a path to ruin, the suit states.

Firestone’s suit says he was not apprised of the issue until February 2024, when a gallery staffer went to the Tucson storage space and was immediately presented with a claim form by a CubeSmart employee at the front desk, according to the suit.

“We’re giving everyone these claim forms,” the employee told the gallery staffer, the lawsuit states.

When the gallery employee entered the unit itself, the lawsuit says they found the artworks enrobed in mold, rendering them “irreparable.”

“When the gallery employee inquired further, the CubeSmart employee replied that the facility had a leak since February 2023 and the company made the decision not to tell any of the storage tenants about the leak,” the suit alleges. “That is, instead of taking immediate steps to notify the gallery of the potential damage to the work, Defendants waited more than one year to do so, and only did so when the gallery employee attended the facility.”

At the time, Firestone’s lawsuit says he pegged the value of the wrecked art at roughly $500,000. After first taking “decisive steps to mitigate and prevent further damage,” which included “inspecting and inventorying the affected artworks and coordinating with various fine art conservators to aid in assessing the scope of damage arising from sustained exposure to moisture and humidity,” Firestone “worked diligently to identify artworks that would require conservation, those needing priority attention and of high value, ruling out artworks which seemingly did not sustain damage,” according to the suit.

He has since determined that his losses were “at least double” the original estimate, the suit added.

Firestone is demanding at least $1m for breach of contract, at least $1m for breach of bailment agreement, and at least $1m for breach of implied warranty of good faith and fair dealing, plus attorney’s fees, to be determined at a jury trial.