Suit: NY man says he drunkenly lost $1.3M artwork

[September 01, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- A lawsuit says a man entrusted with helping to sell a $1.3 million painting said he lost it in New York City while in a drunken haze.

The lawsuit says Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's (zhahn-bab-TEEST'-kuh-MEEL' kohr-OH') "Portrait of a Girl" vanished in July after James Carl Haggerty left a Manhattan hotel with it. He'd gone there to show it to a potential buyer on the owners' behalf.

One of the painting's owners, Kristyn Trudgeon, sued him Monday in a Manhattan court.

The lawsuit says Haggerty told Trudgeon's co-owner he couldn't remember what happened to the circa 1857 painting by the noted pre-Impressionist artist because he'd had too much to drink.

Haggerty didn't immediately return phone messages left for him on Tuesday.

[Associated Press]

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