Nude artist sues MoMA claiming he was groped seven times by older men while taking part in naked 2010 marina Abramovic exhibit and museum bosses did nothing to stop it

An artist who took part in an exhibition in which he stood naked in front of a naked woman as visitors walked past them at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is suing the institution after he was allegedly groped seven times during the exhibition.

John Bonafede filed the lawsuit against the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on Monday, 14 years after he took part in Marina Abramovic’s performance piece at the iconic institution.

Bonafede claims MoMa failed to tell its clients not to touch nude artists involved in the 2010 exhibition, which appeared at the Royal Academy of Arts in London last year.

As a result, the nude artist claims he was groped seven times by five older men while performing the piece called Imponderabilia – with Bonafede standing naked 18 inches away from a naked woman as New Yorkers squeezed past them.

Bonafide said the attacks were ‘eerily similar’, with each older man turning towards the artist before dropping his hand and ‘caressing and groping’ his genitals, ‘lingering for a moment before moving on to the next gallery space’.

In the lawsuit, filed Monday in New York state court, Bonfede accused MoMA of “failing to take reasonable corrective action” by issuing verbal or written warnings to patrons not to touch the performers.

Bonafide, who is seeking unspecified damages in a jury trial, claimed he did not report the initial attack but later told museum security staff, who removed the men from the exhibit.

The nude artist, who had to stand still for 75 minutes as visitors squeezed past him, claims one of the men was a member of the MoMA company whose membership was revoked after he groped Bonafide.

Bonafide said the museum did not tell him the identities of the men who groped and assaulted him, meaning he could not press charges against them.

The nude artist said he did not report the first attack to the museum, claiming organizers had encouraged a “hard it out” culture when unexpected things happened during a performance.

Bonafide also pointed out how another artist was fired on the first day of the exhibition for not standing still, with the lawsuit suggesting he had initially kept his mouth shut to prevent the same thing from happening to him.

But now, after fourteen years, the artist is suing the museum for the “years of emotional distress” and the damage to his “mental health, body image and career.”

Marina Abramović’s exhibition Imponderabilia was brought to London last year, where visitors once again squeeze past naked men and women to get to the next gallery space.

The 76-year-old artist’s previous work includes “Rhythm 0,” in which she placed 72 objects, including a bullet, a gun, a scalpel and a metal bar, on a table and invited visitors to interact with her as they pleased – which resulted in a loaded gun. held against her head.

In 2010, Abramović appeared at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with “The Artist Is Present,” in which she sat in silence for three months with visitors invited to look her in the eye. It was at the same exhibition that Bonafide claims he was groped.

In 2011, Abramović caused a feverish reaction when she and co-curator Debbie Harry of Blondie carved out two life-size nude statues of themselves with a knife and machete.

Another work by Belgrade-born Abramović is The House with the Ocean View, where she lived in a house in a gallery and spectators were invited to watch her for twelve days.

This was recreated as part of the London exhibition, with three women occupying separate open platforms on the gallery wall 24 hours a day, for 12 days, without speaking and drinking only water.