Artist Jeff Koons to Be Grilled Under Oath by Film Producer Joel Silver in $8 Million Battle

Famed artist Jeff Koons is set to be deposed by attorneys for film producer Joel Silver as part of their nasty battle over an $8 million balloon sculpture.

According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Koons and Silver have reached a deal where the artist will sit for a deposition and answer questions regarding the piece the producer brought but has yet to receive.

Silver wants to grill Koons about the development and production of the art piece titled "Balloon Venus Hohlen Fels (Yellow)." He wants to get dates of progress and internal communications Koons sent off to the gallery where Silver purchased the art.

The mega-producer wants records of the payments Koons and his company received from the gallery and all digital models, files used or were intended to be used in connection with the fabrication of the art piece.

As The Blast first reported, the lawsuit in question was filed last year by Silver against the New York art gallery Gagosian Gallery over a deal they reached for him to buy a yellow Balloon Venus sculpture by Jeff Koons for $8 million.

The deal called for Silver to pay an $800,000 deposit, followed by several $1.6 million payments.

Silver claims he made $3.2 million in payments but then stopped making the agreed-upon payments for the next two years.

The producer claimed to have taken issue with the completion date being constantly pushed back. He tried to demand the return of his $3.2 million but the gallery allegedly refused.

They told him if he didn’t make the remainder of the payments, they would consider him in breach and keep his millions. He agreed to a revised payment plan but then Silver didn’t make those payments.

He sued demanding the return of his $3.2 million, plus an additional $6.6 million in damages.

Gagosian Gallery claimed in their response that Joel Silver did not have enough cash to complete the payments. They claim the producer has refused to make the agreed-upon payments he owed for years, citing money and “liquidity problems.”

They accused him of being in breach of the deal and wanted the case dismissed.

Earlier this week, a silver rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons sold at auction for a record $91 million. It became the most expensive work by a living artist ever to sell at auction.