Ilona Staller, a former European porn star and politician, has sued her ex-husband, artist Jeffrey Koons, for millions of dollars in child support. ( AP )
In papers filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, Staller says Koons owes about 1.5 million euros, or about $2.4 million on Wednesday, for support of their 15-year-old son, Ludwig Maximilian Koons.
Staller's papers, filed late Tuesday, say the child support payments of 15,000 euros a month were ordered by an Italian court in June 2007. Koons was represented in that court, which ultimately gave custody of Ludwig to his mother, court papers say.
The amount Koons owes, court papers say, covers October 1998 through December 2007. They say the artist has paid 191,426 euros for child support, leaving a balance owed of about 1.5 million euros.
Koons' lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The Hungarian-born Staller made X-rated films in Italy under the name La Cicciolina before becoming a member of Italy's parliament for five years. She and Koons, 53, met in the early 1990s, when he hired her to pose for sexually explicit photos, paintings and sculptures. They married in Budapest, Hungary, in June 1991.
Following their divorce in New York in 1994, Koons was given custody of the then infant Ludwig. A judge ordered that the child stay in New York, but in June 1994 Staller evaded Koons' security guards and fled to Italy with the boy.
When the divorce and custody issues were litigated again in Italy, Staller, an Italian citizen, was given a divorce. After an appeal, she received custody of the boy.
Koons, whose work has been seen at London's Royal Academy, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, ran up legal bills of almost $4 million trying to get the boy back from Italy.