NEW YORK, NY.- Sopranos actor/artist/art collector Federico Castelluccio has been named as the defendant in a civil action filed in Kings County, NY Supreme Court by his now former publicist James Sliman for non-payment for publicity and related services over the last two and a half years, in regard to Castelluccio’s discovery of his valuable 17th Century Italian Baroque oil painting of Saint Sebastian by Guercino, which was first announced in September 2014.

According to the summons and complaint, Sliman also provided publicity and managerial type services on Castelluccio’s Guercino book proposal/project that has been shopped around to publishers over the last two and a half years

The summons and complaint states that when Sliman’s publicity work on this project began in the spring of 2014, the two had an agreement based on his assurances that the painting would be sold within a period of months, on Castelluccio’s proven expertise in this area of Baroque Old Masters, and that Sliman would be paid a mutually agreed upon sum from the sale of the piece.

Sliman stated that when this didn’t happen as planned, he kept working because he believed Federico when he kept saying the Guercino would be sold very soon. A full year later, when Castelluccio put the painting on exhibit at the Princeton University Museum of Art in July 2015, the two discussed a more specific dollar amount and agreed on $35,000.

According to Sliman, over this whole period of time, he was told there were various delays and reasons why Castelluccio had not yet sold the painting and he never once mentioned that it could take several years or more to sell the painting. To date, Castelluccio has not paid his publicist James Sliman anything at all for his two and a half years of work, delivering world-wide coverage and exposure on the Guercino painting and on Castelluccio himself as a serious art collector.

The summons and complaint also states that, on three occasions, Sliman asked Castelluccio to at least come up with some small good faith payments. Each time, Castelluccio refused, saying that he was flat broke. In the civil suit, Sliman is now asking for the $35,000 he earned during this time. When reached for comment, he said “Everyone knows what an amazing job I have done for Mr. Castelluccio. I’ve been more patient than anyone else would have been and I only want to be paid for my work as agreed. I can’t really say anything else right now, other than I stand by everything that’s in the complaint.”

In the meantime, while Castelluccio keeps telling Sliman he’s very broke, he somehow manages to maintain his own vast museum quality personal art collection and is currently loaning out four very rare paintings he owns by 18th Century late-Baroque artist Francesco de Mura, to the Cornell Fine Arts Museum in Orlando, Florida for their new exhibit. Castelluccio is expected to be at the opening this coming weekend.