David Copperfield is facing a lawsuit from a New York City condo board after he allegedly allowed his unit to devolve into “a state of utter disrepair.”
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the board of managers of the Galleria Condominium alleges the magician “trashed” his unit in the building before abandoning it in 2018.
After leaving the unit, Copperfield, 67, allegedly “failed to maintain the valves, pipes and other mechanical equipment servicing his unit.” As a result, former neighbors and other parts of the building faced damage.
In court documents, the condo board included images from Copperfield’s property that seemingly showcased severe damage to the unit’s carpeting, walls, ceiling, bathtub and more.
“The pictures contained in the complaint speak for themselves, and no further elaboration is really required,” Joshua Stricoff, an attorney for the board of managers of the Galleria Condominium, told Us Weekly in a statement on Monday, August 12. “The board hopes that Mr. Copperfield does right by the building and does right by his unit, and we’ll pursue the lawsuit in the meantime.”
A rep for Copperfield, however, said this case is a “simple insurance claim.”
“The photographs included in the lawsuit don’t reflect the current state of the apartment,” his rep told Us. “This is a court matter and will be handled in court.”
The Galleria Condominium is a luxury high-rise located on East 57th Street in New York City. According to the lawsuit, the condominium prides itself on being one of the city’s classic and preeminent luxury residential condominium buildings.
Copperfield’s unit is described as a multilevel penthouse on the condominium’s 54th floor. The magician purchased the property in October 1997 for nearly $7.4 million.
According to court documents, Copperfield has been a “far cry from a model resident.” The board alleged that Copperfield “notoriously jam packed the unit with novelties such as fortune telling machines, classic arcade games and other, more bizarre items like ‘hazing devices’ apparently used by various fraternities during the turn of the century.”
The plaintiffs believe Copperfield is now residing in Nevada where he has a magic and illusion show at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Hotel. They hope the lawsuit will propel Copperfield to make a change and act.
“To say that he trashed the unit is an understatement,” the plaintiffs alleged in court documents. “The pictures of the unit are appalling and speak for themselves.”
