MoMA files answer in lawsuit by Marina Abramović nude performer amid appeal

The Museum of Modern Art has filed a formal answer to a 2024 sex abuse lawsuit filed by a man who performed nude during the 2010 staging of Marina Abramovic’s Imponderabilia.

The museum filed the answer in New York Supreme Court last month after appealing a judge’s decision refusing to dismiss performer John Bonafede’s case brought under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. In it, Bonafede accused the museum of failing to protect him from repeated sexual abuse by museum visitors despite knowing it was happening.

Originally staged in 1977 in Bologna by Abramović and her then-partner Ulay, Imponderabilia required museum visitors to pass directly between the nude artists in a single narrow doorway, leaving no alternate route into the gallery.

When MoMA presented the work during Abramović’s 2010 retrospective, visitors were permitted to bypass the performance entirely by using another entrance, making the act of squeezing between the nude performers optional rather than unavoidable.

Still, Bonafede said he was sexually assaulted seven times by five different visitors, who he said groped his genitals as they passed through the narrow doorway where he was required to stand still and silent.

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John Bonafede performed nude in MoMA’s staging of Abramović’s Imponderabilia in 2010.

Urgent MatterAdam Schrader

MoMA in its answer, obtained by Urgent Matter, admitted to basic facts of the case. The museum said it financed, curated and mounted Abramović’s 2010 retrospective in which Bonafede worked as a “re-performer” and he and another performer stood nude facing each other in the doorway to stage Abramovic’s work.

The museum also acknowledged that Bonafede reported instances of alleged improper touching to security and that MoMA created a performer handbook and reporting protocol during the exhibition’s run.

At least one visitor accused of improper touching was removed from the museum, and a corporate member was ejected following an alleged incident, MoMA said. The museum kept security logs and said it shortened performer shifts and widened the doorway during the exhibition for logistical and safety reasons.

But MoMA denied the central allegations that it knowingly allowed sexual assaults to occur or failed to take preventative measures. In its answer, the museum repeatedly characterized the incidents as “alleged improper touching” and denied having knowledge of ongoing criminal conduct in the manner described by Bonafede.

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Urgent MatterAdam Schrader

The museum also denied that it fostered a hostile work environment or discriminated against male performers. It rejected claims that male performers faced a heightened gender-based risk or that MoMA acted intentionally, recklessly or with conscious disregard for Bonafede’s safety.

MoMA further denied liability under the Adult Survivors Act, the Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act and the New York City Human Rights Law. The museum disputed Bonafede’s claims of severe emotional harm and denied that he is entitled to damages, punitive relief or attorneys’ fees.

Throughout the filing, MoMA frequently responded that certain allegations “call for a legal conclusion” and therefore require no response, a standard defense posture that avoids conceding the plaintiff’s legal framing.

MoMA asked for the court to dismiss the lawsuit and award it legal fees and expenses.

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