[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/499664354.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tAnthony Haden-Guest says nearly 100 of his cartoons have spent the past 15 years hanging in a Hamptons mansion owned by socialite and collector Libbie Mugrabi. Now he wants them back.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a lawsuit filed this week in New York State Supreme Court, first reported by the\u00a0New York Post,\u00a0<\/em>the veteran critic, cartoonist, and fixture of New York society accused Mugrabi of refusing to return 97 original drawings that were allegedly entrusted to her for a planned exhibition that never took place.<\/p>\n \n\tThe complaint alleges that roughly 15 years ago Haden-Guest provided the drawings to Mugrabi for a show at her Southampton home. Under the arrangement, according to the filing, the works would be framed at Mugrabi\u2019s expense, displayed for prospective buyers, and either sold or returned.<\/p>\n \n\tInstead, the exhibition never happened and the drawings remained hanging in the house, according to the lawsuit. \u201cThere was no contemplation whatsoever\u201d that Mugrabi would own the drawings, the complaint states.<\/p>\n \n\tThe lawsuit offers a glimpse into a long-running friendship that appears to have soured into a dispute over ownership, money, and artwork. Haden-Guest, 89, is one of the art world\u2019s most recognizable figures, known for his decades as a critic, journalist, and chronicler of New York society. Mugrabi, the ex-wife of collector David Mugrabi, has become a frequent presence in both art-world headlines and court filings.<\/p>\n \n\tThe suit claims Haden-Guest began seeking the return of the works in 2024 after receiving offers for exhibitions of his own. In emails cited in the complaint, he allegedly reminded Mugrabi that she had framed the works for a planned show and offered her the opportunity to purchase any pieces she wished to keep at discounted exhibition prices. The drawings were never returned, according to the filing.<\/p>\n \n\tReached by the\u00a0New York Post<\/em>, Mugrabi reportedly described Haden-Guest\u2019s allegations as \u201cbogus.\u201d ARTnews<\/em> has reached out to Mugrabi and her representatives for comment, but did not recieve a response at press time.<\/p>\n \n\tThe complaint identifies a person named Jacob Beam as someone who helped organize the original exhibition arrangement and is familiar with the parties\u2019 understanding of the deal. Beam is not a party to the current lawsuit.<\/p>\n \n\tA person with the same name separately sued Mugrabi in 2023, alleging that he had worked for her fashion brand and personal business ventures. According to\u00a0The Daily Beast<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>Beam in 2023 filed a $5 million suit against Mugrabi in which he claimed the socialite threatened to have him killed after she learned he\u2019d kept a journal of their time working together, and then had him thrown in jail on \u201cbogus criminal charges\u201d including menacing, stalking, and criminal possession of a weapon. Of course, that case is unrelated to Haden-Guest\u2019s claims, and\u00a0ARTnews<\/em>\u00a0has not independently confirmed whether the Jacob Beam identified in the current complaint is the same person. That case is still in process.<\/p>\n \n\tA year before those allegations Mugrabi was\u00a0facing her own charges\u00a0of menacing, criminal mischief, and criminal possession of a weapon after she was accused of threatening her housekeeper, who had tried to come to terms with the socialite over missing wages, with a a knife.<\/p>\n \n\tHaden-Guest values the drawings at roughly $1,000 each, placing the total value of the collection at approximately $97,000. But the drawings are only part of the dispute.<\/p>\n \n\tHaden-Guest also alleges that he spent roughly six months in 2023 working on creative projects for Mugrabi\u2019s fashion venture. According to the complaint, he designed clothing concepts, bags, hats, T-shirts, handkerchiefs, neckties, and other products under an oral agreement that would pay him $3,000 per month. The critic claims he was never compensated, leaving him owed an additional $18,000.<\/p>\n \n\tTaken together, the lawsuit seeks at least $115,000 in damages, along with the return of the drawings themselves.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement to ARTnews<\/em>, Haden-Guest\u2019s attorney, Darragh O\u2019Boyle, declined further comment. \u201cWe have no comment beyond the allegations as set forth in the complaint, which speaks for itself,\u201d O\u2019Boyle said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe case adds another legal headache for Mugrabi, who has been involved in a number of high-profile disputes in recent years. In 2024, art-backed lending firm Art Capital Group sued her over a failed $3 million loan transaction involving works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. Mugrabi denied the allegations and sought dismissal of the claims. The court decided in favor of ACG and, according to legal filings, Mugrabi is appealing the decision.<\/p>\n \n\tMugrabi has been at the center of high profile controversies for the better part of a decade. In 2020, she and collector David Mugrabi finalized a closely watched divorce that spawned years of tabloid headlines and courtroom battles over real estate, artwork, and other assets. Earlier this month, Mugrabi\u00a0listed the Bridgehampton estate she received in the divorce\u00a0for $25 million. The property, according to Haden-Guest\u2019s lawsuit, is also where the critic\u2019s cartoons have remained hanging more than a decade.<\/p>\n \n\tFor now, one of the stranger questions in the art world remains unresolved: whether nearly 100 Anthony Haden-Guest cartoons are still hanging in a Hamptons mansion exactly where he says he left them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/anthony-haden-guest-libbie-mugrabi-cartoons-lawsuit-1234787913\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/499664354.jpg?w=1024″] Anthony Haden-Guest says nearly 100 of his cartoons have spent the past 15 years hanging in a Hamptons mansion owned by socialite and collector Libbie Mugrabi. Now he wants them back. In a lawsuit filed this week in New York State Supreme Court, first reported by the\u00a0New York Post,\u00a0the veteran critic, cartoonist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1963131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1963131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1963131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1963131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1963131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1963131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}