A former Twitter honcho rained misery on his Soho neighbor after a shower in his $8 million loft sprung a leak and ruined the artwork of the renowned painter downstairs, a new lawsuit charges.
Richard Costolo, who was the CEO of Twitter from 2010 to 2015, waited hours before stopping the torrent that damaged or destroyed 176 pieces belonging to Dorothea Rockburne, 88, an abstract painter whose work is in major museums including the Metropolitan and MOMA, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The suit seeks $2 million plus unspecified punitive damages against Costolo and his wife, Lorin. It came after Costolo’s insurance company denied liability for the flood, legal papers say.
“I think it’s a question of the big fish eat the little fish,” Rockburne told The Post. “He thinks he doesn’t have to deal with it because I’m old; because I’m a woman; because I’m an artist.”
Rockburne said she’d never met Costolo, who bought the Grand Street loft in April 2020 from Alexandre de Betak, a fashion show producer. The pad came complete with a secret party room with a stripper pole and is in a loft building that for years housed the homes or studios of artists like Rockburne and fashion photographer Arthur Elgort.
Costolo, 57, who lives outside San Francisco, was not in the loft when the Jan. 25 flood happened. A friend staying in the apartment turned on the guest room shower for the first time since Costolo owned the property and it started to leak, legal papers say.
Costolo was told of the problem about 1 p.m. Jan. 25 but “refused to allow repairs … until a plumber of his choosing was available,” the suit charges.
The plumber did not arrive until 5:30 p.m. and stopped the flood a half hour later, legal papers say.
Meanwhile, the water was pouring onto Rockburne’s work, including sketches dating to her time as a student at Black Mountain College and other work from the 1970s and 1980s. She has lived in the 6,200-square-foot loft since 1973 and it is both her home and work space.
“It just breaks my heart to see this,” Rockburne said Friday, looking at one damaged drawing. Other pieces became stuck together and many have stains.
Rockburne and staffers from the Upper East Side David Nolan Gallery, which represents her and where she will have a show in October, tried to salvage as much as possible, but 25 pieces worth $1.3 million were “irreparably damaged,” the lawsuit charges.
Costolo, whose net worth was reportedly more than $400 million when he left Twitter in 2015 to be replaced by co-founder Jack Dorsey, appeared to initially take responsibility for the flood.
“Let me know if there’s anything in your place that needs repair,” Costolo wrote in a Jan. 25 email, legal papers say.
He sent another note the next day saying “Keep us posted and sincere apologies.”
The turnabout came in April when a lawyer for Costolo’s insurer, Chubb, said the artwork could be sent out for repair and then reneged, legal papers say.
Rockburne does not have the estimated $576,000 to repair the art, the suit says.
Irwin Rochman, a lawyer representing Rockburne, said Costolo’s failure to stop the leak quickly had “an immoral aspect to it.”
“It’s not simply careless or reckless behavior. It’s intentional and irresponsible behavior,” Rochman said. “It’s willful.”
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