The financial foundations of the Landmark Hotel, the nine-story building rising on the Downtown Mall, may be shakier than they appear. Bloomberg.com is reporting that Halsey Minor, a principle investor in the Landmark Hotel, is being sued by Sotheby’s auction house for not paying $16.8 million for several art works, including Edward Hick’s' “Peaceable Kingdom.” Minor bought the painting in May for $9.6 million.

In the Bloomberg.com story, Minor said that Sotheby’s is misrepresenting the facts because it has an interest in the work. But a Sotheby’s spokesperson countered that claim: “Over the last several weeks Mr. Minor told us the sole reason he hadn't paid was because he was owed money by others, so this contention about non-disclosure is not credible,” Diana Phillips told Bloomberg.com.

The back and forth continued when Minor told the New York Times yesterday, "My net worth exceeds what’s owed by an order of magnitude. Their claim is preposterous." To which Phillips volleyed that “it was only a few days ago that he brought up this issue of financial disclosure. His explanation is just not credible.” Minor told the Times that he was planning a counter suit.

Minor has local roots and made his fortune by founding CNET.com during the dot.com boom. Last year, he helped Lee Danielson repurchase the former Boxer Learning center building from Oliver Kuttner for $4.5 million after Danielson sold it to Kuttner in 2006 for $3.8 million.

In recent months, Minor has made waves in the horseracing world for trying to purchase Hialeah Park race track in Florida.