A high-powered art advisor who worked with Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone is an unethical, abusive liar who slept with clients and dealers, got kickbacks and urged her former partner to whore herself out to close deals, according to a bombshell lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Barbara Guggenheim, 78, who is not believed to be related to the famed museum family, once urged her young employee Abigail Asher \u2014 who later became her partner \u2014 to \u201cwear leather and be provocative\u201d and \u201cthat she should never go to a client\u2019s home unless she was prepared to sleep with him,\u201d Asher alleged.<\/p>\n
Asher, 61, was \u201cexploited, controlled and threatened by\u201d Guggenheim for nearly 40 years before the two agreed to split in 2023 \u2014 only to have Guggenheim spy on her and falsely accuse her of stealing more than $20 million from their company, Asher alleged in court papers first reported by ArtNews.<\/a><\/p>\n Barbara Guggenheim and Abigail Asher worked together from 1987 until 2024, when Guggenheim sued Asher in Manhattan. This week, Asher filed her own explosive claims against Guggenheim. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cIt should go without saying that art advisors with fiduciary duties to their clients should not become sexually involved with other art dealers or experts who are on the opposite side of deals they are \u201cBut Guggenheim violated this rule \u2014 a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Whenever Asher, who began working for Guggenheim in 1987, spoke up about Guggenheim\u2019s behavior the older woman allegedly \u201cthreatened to destroy Asher with her \u2018secret weapon’\u201d \u2014 her then-husband, powerhouse Hollywood attorney Bert Fields<\/a>, who repped Cruise, Michael Jackson, George Lucas and the Beatles. <\/a><\/p>\n In 1995 the two agreed to evenly share the company\u2019s profits and expenses but Asher said she was generating far more than Guggenheim, including nearly $20 million in deals during their last decade together.<\/p>\n She also claimed Guggenheim charged their company, West Village-based Guggenheim Asher Associates, for outrageous expenses, such as $3,000 in dance lesssons; an $8,000 spa trip in California; a $12,500 African safari; $36,000 for Fields\u2019 2022 funeral; $48,000 for a party at the Wolfgang Puck-owned Spago in Beverly Hills; and more than $400,000 for car services.<\/p>\n A lawyer for Guggenheim called her former business partner\u2019s allegations \u201clibelous nonsense.\u201d Getty Images for Barneys New Yor<\/p>\n Guggenheim was also known to send erratic and \u201cincomprehensible\u201d emails, an example of \u201ca serious mental decline, which further damaged relationships,\u201d Asher claimed.<\/p>\n In 2023, the two restructured their company, and instead of equally splitting revenue and costs, each worked for their own earnings \u2014 a change that sent Guggenheim\u2019s finances \u201cinto freefall,\u201d Asher claimed in her lawsuit.<\/p>\n
orchestrating for clients,\u201d Asher said in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n