“Max Agents Stole Millions!” Daughter Alleges

The daughter of ailing psychedelic painter Peter Max claims her dad’s agents have taken over his art company — with one stealing $3 million in insurance payments and the other ensconcing himself at the artist’s St. John’s vacation home, according to a new lawsuit.

Libra Max owns 40 percent of her dad’s art company, ALB. Her older brother, Adam Max controls another 40 percent and their father Peter has the remaining share.

The 79-year-old artist – whose works hang in the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art – has Alzheimer’s Disease, his daughter says in the suit against her brother.

Libra, 50, claims Adam, 52, has allowed their father’s agent Larry Moskowitz and an accountant named Robert Frank to “enrich themselves at the expense of ALP and the Max family.”

First, from 2012 to 2014 Moskowitz allegedly gave Frank $3 million from $15 million in insurance payments over artwork damaged in Hurricane Sandy.

Then at the end of 2015 Moskowitz “unleashed a tirade of threats at Libra Max when she asked him to temporarily vacate Peter Max’s Virgin Island home (where, apparently, he had taken up residence) so that she and her father could spend Christmas and New Years there,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit.

“Because of the ferocity of the threats and invective leveled against her by Moskowitz and Frank, Libra Max did not take her father to his own home in St. John,” she says in court papers.

Libra’s suing her brother for access to the company’s books and records and to regain control of the business.

But her brother’s attorney, Eric Hellige, said, “Adam has been cooperating with Libra and has provided her much of the information that she’s asked for already and will continue to cooperate to provide her whatever additional information she’s looking for.”

Moskowitz’s lawyer, Michael C. Barrows, called the allegations “incendiary” and “not true.”

“Mr. Moskowitz with the help of Adam Max has done wonderful things for the company,” Barrows said.

Frank called the suit “ridiculous.” He said the $3 million in insurance proceeds were to cover outstanding payments for his accounting work.

The Max family has a history of legal drama. Peter’s decades-younger second wife Mary sued her stepson Adam in 2015 claiming he stole $4.3 million worth of paintings from her.

Mary filed suit after Adam lost a bid to have his dad removed from the couple’s Riverside Drive home where the son claimed his stepmom was trying to kill her husband. Both sides denied the allegations.

Peter Max is a world renowned artist that has touched the hearts and lives of millions. Here at Gallery Art we are honored to be able to show multiple Peter Max works, starting from the 1970’s until today.

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