Peter Max’s daughter is leading smear campaign against guardian, lawsuit claims

By Conor Skelding

Artist Peter Max has battled with dementia and been under the care of a guardian. Carly Otness

Despite his daughter’s claims to the contrary, famed pop artist Peter Max — worth a cool $65 million — is no prisoner, claims the court-appointed guardian who controls his affairs.

The ailing 84-year-old father of two, whose artwork has created the whopping fortune, suffers from dementia and has had every aspect of his life — legal, personal and financial — under court scrutiny since 2015.

The artist’s daughter, Libra Max, and a pal, Edward Tricomi, have been on a “Free Britney”-style campaign, claiming the person in charge of Peter’s personal affairs — including his healthcare, activities and social visits — has been ruining his life instead.

They even have a web site, freepetermax.com, which has drawn the support of well-known names like Tony Danza and Mary Trump, with accusations that guardian Barbara Lissner has kept the artist isolated, drained his funds and even taken his phone and his cats.

Peter Max works on a painting of the Statue of Liberty aboard a boat in New York Harbor, as part of the Fourth of July festivities in 1987.

AP

But it’s all a lie, contends Lissner, who is suing the daughter and Tricomi in Manhattan Supreme Court for defamation.

Libra, 54, controls her father’s finances, and she’s the one “confiscated” Max’s phone and cats, according to Lissner’s suit, which notes judges have repeatedly rejected Libra’s allegations of mismanagement.

“[O]nly she knows of their whereabouts,” Lissner said of the felines, alleging in her court papers that “Libra and Mr. Tricomi’s depravity know no bounds.”

Lissner, an attorney who works with Holocaust victims and was appointed by in 2019 to oversee Peter’s affairs, claims in court papers that Libra and Tricomi have falsely accused her of kidnapping or even trafficking Peter; called her a Nazi; wrongly claimed they’ve been barred from seeing the artist and accused judges who disagree with them of taking kickbacks.

The alleged smear campaign has been so effective that Lissner and her law firm now get “emails and telephone calls accusing them of crimes and threatening them,” according to court papers.

Libra Max (right) has been advocating for her father’s release from a guardianship, which she claims is abusive.

Stephen Yang

Lissner claims Peter Max requested guardianship because “tension” and “mismanagement” of his affairs by his family, which includes Libra, son Adam Max and his second wife, Mary, who allegedly abused the artist before she committed suicide at age 52 in June 2019.

He rejected the idea of putting Libra in charge, according to Lissner’s suit.

Libra Max was so difficult she drove out guardian after guardian, Lissner alleged.

Lissner wanted to resign last year, but the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible, she said in the court papers.

“It’s my opinion that a number of [guardians] stepped aside, quite frankly, because of all the pandemonium that was raised in the Max household [by Libra Max and Max’s late wife, Mary],” Robert Johnson, an attorney for Max’s son Adam, told The Post. “I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but that’s what I would have to say.”

Peter Max has been under court scrutiny for seven years.

©Patrick McMullan

Peter’s son, Adam Max, told The Post he backs Lissner.

“Everything Barbara Lissner is alleging is true,” he said. “Barbara Lissner is giving my father excellent care. He’s never been treated better in his life.”

Lissner’s allegations are “motivated by greed and a desire to silence Libra Max for exposing the abuse of her father,” said Libra Max’s lawyer, Jeffrey M. Eilender. “The suit is a tissue of lies and a money grab. Barbara Lissner continues to put Peter Max in danger and must be removed immediately. Peter needs critical medical attention. Libra will not be silenced.”

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Peter Max’s daughter is leading smear campaign against guardian, lawsuit claims