NBC Universal wanted to reduce the price to $1.4 million, from $1.5 billion, for DreamWorks' live-action business, which includes a 60-movie library, executives involved in the negotiations said.
They designed elaborate visual presentations and even a model, which library executives declined to describe, saying that it was strictly hypothetical and that a final design was more than a year away.
According to the New York Times, the city and Mayor Bloomberg are named as defendants in the suit along with library executives.
The library's executive director, John H. Taylor, has been an important player in the dispute.
The library's executive director, Julia Whitehead, said her favorite item on display was his Purple Heart medal.
Daniel Snydacker, the library's executive director, said the 38 items are stored at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
"Behind my circulation desk, I have boxes and boxes of food that people are stumbling over," said Kathy Pape, the library's executive director.
Noreen Tomassi, the library's executive director, declined to divulge the price or the name of the buyer, but said the new owner intends the preserve the building.
Instead, they voted to cut the budget by $250,795, although Sandra Miranda, the library's executive director, indicated that the board might consider further cuts in the coming months.
John H. Taylor, the library's executive director, called the suits necessary to make the library more independent and professional, and he said Mrs. Cox and her husband, Edward Cox, a New York lawyer, were obstructing the library's development.
