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’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.”
Edward Tricomi and Libra Max hold a picture of artist Peter Max.
Stephen Yang
Pop artist Peter Max, 84, father, animal advocate and Alzheimer’s victim.
Born Nazi Germany. Refugee, fled before the Holocaust. American
immigrant. Now — finances dwindling — under New York City
court-appointed guardianship.
I have reported this before.
Now daughter Libra asks to help what she calls a seemingly
“over-medicated Peter” and “involuntary daylong isolation” and “family
members requiring formal written request even for time limited,
surveilled visitation.” Phone’s removed. Pets removed. Health care proxy
family members are allegedly no longer privy to his medical
information.
Cited is camera surveillance 24 hours a day, no permission to visit
his own art studio, lifelong friends needing to sign an NDA before
addressing him.
Libra Max (M), daughter of pop-artist Peter Max, friends and animal
rights activists protested outside the law firm Phillip Nizer demanding
an end of the artist's forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele
Holtermann)
While Britney Spears’ nightmare
conservatorship has ended after 13 years, thanks partly to the tenacity
of the “Free Britney” movement, family and friends of renowned pop
artist Peter Max have been fighting a legal battle since 2019 to free
the 84-year-old Holocaust survivor from a guardianship his family and
supporters describe as abusive and exploitive.
At a protest outside the law office
of Phillips Nizer LLP in Midtown Manhattan on Nov.4, his daughter Libra
Max rallied for her father’s freedom with the support of animal rights
activists and family members of victims of guardianship abuse.
Peter Max, who has Alzheimer’s and
made a name for himself with his colorful psychedelic paintings in the
60s and 70s and whose works hang in the Museum of Modern Art, was placed
under guardianship in 2016 because of alleged mistreatment by his wife
Mary, who committed suicide in 2019 at the age of 52.
Friends
and animal rights activists protested alongside Libra Max, daughter of
pop-artist Peter Max, outside the law firm Phillip Nizer demanding an
end of the artist’s forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann)
Libra Max shared that they didn’t
encounter any problems with the first two guardians because they didn’t
interfere with her dad’s life. The older Max’s nightmare began in 2019
when his court-appointed attorney Elizabeth Adinolfi, a partner with
Phillips Nizer LLP, picked attorney Barbara Urbach Lissner of Lissner
& Lissner LLP as his legal personal guardian.
Libra Max and her supporters allege
that Adinolfi and Urbach Lissner and Peter’s legal property guardian,
Lawrence Flynn, worked together in the past and that his estate is being
depleted under their guardianship and that they control all aspects of
his life.
“The problem is when somebody steps
into that role, a court-appointed role, and they don’t have proper
motives, and they don’t have proper ethics, and they’re there for greed.
There is no oversight, and you can’t get them out,” Peter Max’s
daughter said.
Friends
and animal rights activists protested alongside Libra Max, daughter of
pop-artist Peter Max, outside the law firm Phillip Nizer demanding an
end of the artist’s forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann)
Speaking to about thirty supporters holding up signs reading “#FreePeterMax”
and depicting some of his most iconic paintings, Libra Max shared that
she can only see her dad three times a week for an hour under strict
supervision -on a public park bench in Riverside Park. She is prohibited
from entering her childhood home on the Upper Westside, where her
father lives in complete isolation. She claims that her dad has to ask
for permission to call his family and friends – something four of Peter
Max’s long-time friends attested to in an affidavit to the New York State Supreme Court– and the guardians even got rid of his five beloved rescue cats.
Libra Max said that her father, who
she estimates barely weighs 100 pounds, has been begging to be released
to the care of his family.
“That is what was in [Peter Max]
estate planning documentation, which has all been voided by the
guardianship system,” Libra Max explained. “When you are put into
guardianship, all of your estate planning is voided. All of your
documentation is voided. Your human rights are voided. Your
constitutional rights are voided. You have less rights than a convicted
felon!”
Libra
Max, daughter of pop-artist Peter Max, friends and animal rights
activists protested outside Phillips Nizer LLP demanding an end of the
artist’s forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann)
Libra Max pointed out that about 1.3
million Americans are in guardian and conservatorships in the United
States. While some guardians certainly represent the interests of their
wards, many might have more sinister motives since $50 billion are in
the care of conservators.
“This is a money-making industry. This is not about protection,” Libra Max, who recently submitted a written statement to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution regarding Toxic Conservatorships: The Need for Reform, said.
“My father escaped the Holocaust,”
Max said. “He came to this country as a teenage immigrant with nothing.
He started from nothing. He believed in the American dream. And because
he achieved the American dream, it has now made him a target.”
Friends
and animal rights activists protested alongside Libra Max, daughter of
pop-artist Peter Max, outside Phillips Nizer LLP demanding an end of the
artist’s forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann)
Every person who ever crossed paths
with Peter Max described him as a deeply caring, warm-hearted man with
an abundant love for animals.
Animal rights campaigner Donny Moss
joined the rally to help free vegan Peter Max from his alleged predatory
guardianship and support Libra Max in her quest to get her father
back.
“Peter Max, for as long as I can
remember, opened his legendary art studio to the animal rights
community,” Moss said. “And now he’s being abused in many of the same
ways that he was fighting against. He’s being stripped of his freedom,
of his family, of his dignity.”
Friends
and animal rights activists protested alongside Libra Max, daughter of
pop-artist Peter Max, outside Phillips Nizer LLP demanding an end of the
artist’s forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann)
Edita Birnkrant, executive director
of NYCLASS, a non-profit animal rights organization, has known Peter Max
for many years and was grateful for his support of NYCLASS and his
efforts banning the horse carriage industry.
“It’s so wrong what’s happening,”
Birnkrant said about Max’s situation. “That someone who fought against
injustice and cruelty and exploitation for people and animals is now
suffering and doesn’t even have his freedom. It’s like he’s in jail.”
Birnkrant promised to fight as vigorously for Peter Max’s freedom as he fought to free abused and exploited animals.
“We’re just so heartbroken that his own freedom and dignity is being stripped of him,” Birnkrant expressed.
Friends
and animal rights activists protested alongside Libra Max, daughter of
pop-artist Peter Max, outside Phillips Nizer LLP demanding an end of the
artist’s forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann)
Animal rights activist Rachel Levy
Ejsmont worked with Peter Max on the “Surrender Your Heart” video by
Missing Persons in 1983 and described him as a “sweetheart and gentle,
gentle being.”
“There’s absolutely no reason for him
to be held in captivity,” Levy Ejsmont said and pointed out that like
animals, humans don’t thrive in isolation. “Animals are driven to
lunacy, and they’re driven to madness when they’re kept isolated and
captive from their loved ones.”
In a statement, which the law firm
handed out to protesters and signed by Marc A. Landis, Managing Partner,
Phillips Nizer LLP wrote that the firm supported the First Amendment
right to peaceful protest and referred to the firm’s long history of
First Amendment advocacy. It rejected the claims made by Libra Max and
her supporters.
Friends
and animal rights activists protested alongside Libra Max, daughter of
pop-artist Peter Max, outside Phillips Nizer LLP demanding an end of the
artist’s forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann)
“Phillips Nizer is providing legal
services to a client as ordered and approved by the New York State
Supreme Court. We serve this client, as we do all of our clients, in
accordance with our professional and ethical responsibilities as
attorneys.
The claims made by Libra Max and her
allies are demonstrably false and defamatory to our firm and attorneys.
We will address this at the appropriate time and in the appropriate
forum.
Due to the sensitive nature of
guardianship proceedings, and pursuant to the duty of privilege that we
owe to our clients, we will not offer any further comments at this
time.”
Friends
and animal rights activists protested alongside Libra Max, daughter of
pop-artist Peter Max, outside Phillips Nizer LLP demanding an end of the
artist’s forced guardianship. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann)
