“Moma turned a blind eye to sexual abuse”

He participated in the world-famous Marina Abramovic’s nude exhibition in New York.

Now John Bonafede is suing the art museum Moma – and accusing several museum visitors of sexual abuse.

The art exhibition was titled “The Artist is Present” and was exhibited at Moma in 2010.

John Bonafede’s role was to stand as a nude model, silent and face to face with another nude model.

Museum-goers were invited to squeeze through the performers to move on to the next part of performance artist Marina Abramovic’s exhibition.

It was then that John Bonafede believes that men sexually molested him, reports Sky News.

The lawsuit states that the nude model was exposed on at least seven occasions – by five different visitors.

The men then allegedly caressed him in an unwanted way. Which John Bonafede states that he felt mentally ill about for several years.

Now he says the museum turned a blind eye to the abuse.

“The museum knew that there had been sexual assaults against many of the employees in the exhibition, but they have deliberately and diligently failed to take measures to prevent a repetition of the assaults,” the lawsuit states.

The museum has previously stated that guards turned away inappropriate visitors during the exhibition 14 years ago. In court documents, it is highlighted that one of the suspects should also have had his membership revoked.

Even so, Moma should have done more for the safety of the nude models, according to John Bonafede.

Moma has not commented on John Bonafede’s lawsuit, which was filed on Monday.

But already during the exhibition several media reported on the sexual abuse.

“We are aware of the challenges of having nude models participating in the exhibition who have complained of being molested by visitors. Any visitor who inappropriately touches or disturbs any of the artists will be escorted from the museum by the Moma security department,” the museum wrote in a comment at the time.