Beanie Babies billionaire Ty Warner sues Santa Barbara museum

Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, accusing the institution of violating a 25-year naming-rights agreement for its Sea Center after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2013.

The lawsuit was filed by Warner in a U.S. District Court in California on September 16 but was spotted by Urgent Matter earlier this month when the museum submitted a procedural filing extending its deadline to respond until November 21.

According to the complaint, Warner agreed in 2003 to donate $1.5 million, funds the museum needed to complete reconstruction of its Stearns Wharf facility, in exchange for the building being named the Ty Warner Sea Center. He also designed a limited-edition octopus-shaped Beanie Baby, “Opie,” for sale in the gift shop.

The museum allegedly removed Warner’s name in 2014, roughly halfway through the agreed-upon term. The institution allegedly told him the change was prompted by his tax evasion conviction but publicly said it was part of a rebranding to align the Sea Center more closely with the Museum of Natural History for its tenth anniversary.

Warner believed that since the museum kept the full donation, it intended to restore his name at a later date. Ten years later, in December 2024, Warner was reviewing his financial contributions and decided to ask the museum again if it intended to restore his name.

“He was told no, but that the Sea Center was open to naming opportunities at the Sea Center for Mr. Warner,” the lawsuit reads. “After months of internal discussions, on May 16, 2025, the Sea Center invited Mr. Warner to make another substantial donation to the Sea Center, this time in excess of $50 million.”

Lawyers for Warner wrote that the museum’s willingness to enter into another agreement with him indicated that the explanation he had received about his tax case was just a “pretext” and had instead removed his name for another undisclosed reason.

Warner is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, as well as damages for “emotional distress.”

The case underscores the growing scrutiny around donor-recognition agreements in the museum sector. In recent years, institutions from the Met to the Tate have faced pressure to remove the names of controversial benefactors like the Sackler family, raising questions about how far museums can or should go in revising naming deals when reputational concerns arise.

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