A bidder at a Christie’s contemporary-art auction is suing the auction house, claiming it improperly reopened bidding on a 1954 Sam Francis painting after his $3 million telephone bid was accepted by the auctioneer, Bloomberg reports.

In his suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Gregory Callimanopulos, a shipping magnate and collector, says Christie’s later sold the painting, Grey, for $3.2 million to Joanne Heyler, director and chief curator of the Broad Art Foundation.

According to the suit, auctioneer Christopher Burge told the packed room that the hypnotic gray painting, with a pre-sale estimate of $2 million to $3 million, “sold to the telephone for $3 million.” But Burge then reopened bidding, the suit claims, because he said a paddle in the room went up as the hammer fell. “This was not correct,” the suit says.

Karen Denne, a spokeswoman for the Broad foundation, which is funded by billionaire Eli Broad, told Bloomberg that Heyler declined to comment. Neither Callimanopulos nor his lawyer, Jeffrey Dine, could be reached for comment. A Christie’s spokeswoman told Bloomberg the auction house “acted in complete accordance with its conditions of sale.”

Callimanopulos seeks a declaration that the work is his, for $3 million, plus commissions. He also seeks attorney’s fees and other costs that the court considers justified.