The art world spent much of 2025 not unveiling masterpieces but unsealing court documents, as if the industry had drifted into a year-long deposition. What began as the usual background hum of disputes swelled into something grander: collectors accusing advisers, advisers suing one another, estates defending colors, sneaker companies parsing securities law, and even a SoHo garden insisting—quite earnestly—that it is a work of art entitled to federal protection. It was a year in which everyone, from billionaires to anonymous artists, seemed determined to prove that the only medium more enduring than bronze is litigation.
Part of the spectacle—if one can call it that—was the dizzying range of conflicts. Some were baroque financial dramas in which auction houses behaved more like investment banks than cultural institutions. Others rose from the sediment of decades-old handshake deals and foggy memories involving motorcycles and Malibu property. Threading through all of them was a single contradiction the art world can no longer ignore: a market built on secrecy that now finds itself hauled, blinking, into the fluorescent glare of legal scrutiny. If 2025 had a mood, it was the realization that discretion is no defense against a motivated plaintiff.
What follows is a thematically organized tour through the year’s dozen most revealing lawsuits—cases that together map the pressure points of a field undergoing a reluctant reckoning. The picture that emerges is of an industry discovering, with mounting discomfort, that mystique is a poor substitute for governance.
When WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum accused interior designer Rémi Tessier in October of inflating invoices and pocketing improper commissions, the lawsuit quickly expanded beyond décor. Tessier’s dealings with major galleries—Acquavella, Nahmad Contemporary, and Perrotin—became central to Koum’s claim that the designer used legitimate art purchases to pad bills for unsuspecting clients.
The galleries, none of which are accused of wrongdoing, objected to sweeping discovery requests they say would expose confidential pricing structures and internal negotiations. Their pushback is understandable: few industries rely as heavily on discretion as the gallery world.
Yet the case raises an uncomfortable question: when billionaires litigate, how private can the art market remain? Depending on how the court rules, 2025 may be remembered as the year clients began prying open the black box.