The Berlin dealer Isabella Bortolozzi no longer represents the Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo. The split came in the middle of a court case filed against both of them at the end of 2013 by the Dutch collector and entrepreneur Bert Kreuk.
Kreuk’s claim—that Vo agreed in January 2013 to produce one or more new works for Kreuk’s exhibition at the Hague’s Gemeentemuseum and that the work would be acquired by the collector after the show—was upheld by a Rotterdam court in June. Vo was ordered to create a “large and impressive” installation for Kreuk within a year.
The artist has lodged an appeal in The Hague and has instructed a new lawyer, Maarten Haak, to lead the appeal case. Gert-Jan Van den Bergh previously represented both Vo and Bortolozzi. Haak is not representing Bortolozzi as “in the appeal case the interests of the artist and his [former] gallery may be different”, the lawyer says. “This was a pressing reason for Van den Bergh to withdraw from representing both parties in the appeal.”
Kreuk says Van den Bergh stepped down from the case following a recent complaint Kreuk made. “I ordered my lawyers to investigate and accordingly prepare a complaint against [Van den Bergh] at the bar association,” Kreuk says. Van den Bergh could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Kreuk says he has returned the work Vo sent for the show at the Gemeentemuseum—Fiat Veritas, a cardboard box marked with gold leaf—as Vo and Bortolozzi have paid Kreuk’s legal fees as ordered by the court. Vo could not be reached for comment via his New York gallery, Marian Goodman. Vo’s lawyer also declined to comment further “while the case is pending before the Court of Appeals of The Hague”.
Bortolozzi declined to divulge why she and Vo had split, saying: “I decided to stop representing Danh Vo in September 2014.”
