A performance artist-poet has filed a $65 million lawsuit against the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and four other institutions for allegedly using without his permission a 1979 photo he took of the provocative photographer wearing "drag."

Bobby Miller claims that after the photo shoot, Mapplethorpe said his studio assistant would process the film, but then he never gave back the photos. Miller says the Mapplethorpe Foundation, “has misrepresented and continues to misrepresent the Miller Images to be the work of Robert Mapplethorpe as ‘self-portraits.’” Mapplethorpe died in 1989.

The Sean Kelly Gallery, Skarstedt Gallery, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Whitney Museum of American Art are named in the Manhattan suit, for allegedly using the images without his permission. Miller seeks "exclusive rights" to the images, plus $45 million from the foundation and $20 million from the four others.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a current spotlight on Mapplethorpe, including a major retrospective exhibition at the Getty and LACMA, a new book release, and HBO documentary.