Artist: I Was Sexually Assaulted While Performing Nude in Famed Exhibit

A performer who appeared naked in a show by world-renowned performance artist Marina Abramovic at New York City's Museum of Modern Art is suing the museum, saying it failed to take action after he was sexually assaulted multiple times by attendees during the performances nearly 14 years ago, the AP reports. The suit was filed in Manhattan on Monday under the New York Adult Survivors Act, a special state law that created a yearslong suspension of the usual time limit for accusers to sue. Although the law expired last year, the suit says the parties agreed to extend the window closing. John Bonafede alleges in the suit that he was sexually assaulted by five public onlookers who attended a show he was hired by the museum to perform in as part of Abramovic's retrospective "The Artist Is Present."

Emails sent to the museum this week were not returned. Abramovic is not named as a defendant and did not immediately return a request for comment. The work, titled "Imponderabilia," saw Bonafede and another performer standing face-to-face with each other in a doorway about 18 inches apart, fully nude, silent, and still. The exhibition, which ran from March 14, 2010, through May 31, 2010, was curated by the museum in a way that encouraged visitors to pass in between the performers as they went from one gallery to the next, the suit alleges. Prior to the exhibition, the performers had voiced their concerns about nude performers being subject to harassment in a letter to the museum during contract negotiations, the suit said.

The people who assaulted Bonafede were mostly older men, the suit says. One of the perpetrators was a corporate member of the museum, who was ultimately kicked out and revoked of his membership, according to the suit. During the final weeks of the exhibition, another attendee non-consensually groped Bonafede's private areas three times before they were finally stopped by security, the suit said. Bonafede reported four of the individuals to the museum staff and security immediately, according to the suit, while the fifth was witnessed personally by the museum security staff. At one point, Bonafede also witnessed a public attendee sexually assault his female co-performer by kissing her on the mouth without her consent, the suit said.

(More Museum of Modern Art stories.)