East Side Art Dealer Sues Homeless Men
A high-end antique dealer on the Upper East Side is suing four unnamed homeless people for $1 million on the grounds that they've driven away customers by loitering on the sidewalk in "old, warn, and unsanitary clothing and cardboard boxes and old blankets which they convert into sleeping accommodations."
In addition to money, Karl Kemp & Associates Antiques, located near 69th Street at 833 Madison Ave. near Gucci, Chanel, and Prada, is asking a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to force the homeless defendants to stay at least 100 feet away from the store, according to legal papers filed yesterday.
For more than two years, the papers allege, the homeless have spent "significant amounts of time" obstructing Karl Kemp's storefront window display, "consuming alcoholic beverages from open bottles, performing various bodily functions such as urinating or spitting on the sidewalk, and…verbally harassing or intimidating … prospective customers."
A saleswoman at Karl Kemp, whose Web site says specializes in "rare Biedermeier and Art Deco" furniture, referred questions to its attorney, who didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
