Sotheby's CEO William Ruprecht, via UVM
Bloomberg’s Philip Boroff has dug into Sotheby’s SEC filings, reporting that that CEO William Ruprecht’s voluntary $100,000 pay cut has been restored. Read Boroff’s story on Bloomberg here.
Ruprecht took a pay cut in May 2009 on the heels of plunging auction revenues, according to Boroff. His salary has been restored to $700,000, plus other benefits.
The CEO’s pay rose following a period of drastic cost cuts which helped Sotheby’s post a $73.6 million profit in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company fired twenty…
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Bronze African 'Walking Man' and 'Walking Woman' figures
A reader sent me this jpeg depicting a pair of West African bronze statues he had acquired and was re-considering in the wake of Sotheby’s sale of Alberto Giacometti’s $104.3 million Walking Man I. (Read more on that sale here.)
Alberto Giacometti with a `Walking Man,' photo: Henri Cartier-Bresson
The collector tells me his African statues are over 100 years old and hail from Mali. They do bear an uncanny resemblance to Giacometti’s 1960 attenuated figure.
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Bernard Goldberg at home with a favorite Guy Pene du Bois painting
Link to Bloomberg story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
March 4 (Bloomberg) — New York art dealer Bernard Goldberg, 77, reckoned the time had come for a graceful and reasonably lucrative exit from the business.
After 12 years of dealing in high-end American art, Goldberg will close his Madison Avenue gallery and sell its entire inventory of 175 artworks and furnishings at New York auctions hosted by Christie’s International this year. The sale is estimated to fetch as much as…
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Nick Cave Sound Suits at Armory Show
Link to Bloomberg story here.
By Lindsay Pollock and Katya Kazakina
March 4 (Bloomberg) — Wealthy and determined art collectors stormed David Kordansky’s booth yesterday afternoon during the opening hours of New York’s Armory Show.
The slender Los Angeles dealer held off a stampede of would-be buyers at the art fair, at one point calling out, politely but firmly, “Just let me get a handle on what has sold!”
The objects of desire: colorful geometric paintings by artist Will Fowler, tagged at $6,800-$7,000 a piece. Kordansky moved 13…
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