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…
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…
Link to Bloomberg story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — As Polaroid, that once mighty photo giant, withers away in bankruptcy court, a chunk of its remarkable photography collection will be dispersed at a controversial sale set for June 21 and 22 at Sotheby’s in New York.
More than 1,200 works from Polaroid’s corporate collection, chronicling decades of artistic experimentation by Andy Warhol, Chuck Close and others who pushed the aesthetic boundaries of the instant-film process, will be hammered away by order of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. Many…
Bob Adelman's Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech, Adelman/Magnum, via Bloomberg
Link to Bloomberg News story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) — Billionaire Michael Dell’s investment firm, MSD Capital LP, has acquired about 185,000 vintage photographic prints from the Magnum Photos agency in what is thought to be among the largest photo transactions in history.
While no price was disclosed, the collection has been insured for more than $100 million, according to a knowledgeable source who declined to be identified.
MSD Capital will lend…
Goltzius, via Bloomberg
Link to Bloomberg News article here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Hendrick Goltzius’ 1612 depiction of an erotic encounter between a voluptuous sleeping damsel and a satyr, once owned by Nazi Hermann Goering, fetched $6.8 million yesterday at Sotheby’s in New York from an unidentified European collector who was bidding by phone.
The 6-foot-wide painting, “Jupiter and Antiope,” was estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million, but drew interest from only one buyer.
Sotheby’s Old Master Painting sale otherwise sparked fairly healthy bidding, tallying…
Link to Bloomberg News story here.
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — New York’s Park Avenue set has begun buying art again — battered stock markets be damned! — judging from the buzz and sales Thursday at the opening night of the 56th Winter Antiques Show.
Just ask Barbara Israel. In the first half-hour of the upscale art fair, the New York-based dealer who specializes in garden statuary sold 10 pieces, including a pair…
Picasso's 'The Actor' via Bloomberg News
Link to Bloomberg News story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — A Picasso painting, worth more than $130 million by some estimates, was gouged on Friday at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art when a museumgoer fell into the artwork, leaving a six-inch gash.
The 1904-1905 painting, The Actor, depicting a graceful, gaunt male figure in a dusty pink costume on stage, was hung in a second-floor gallery among a display of early Picasso artworks.
An unidentified woman attending a museum class…
Knoedler, via Bloomberg News
Link to story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) — For a sedate gallery housed almost 40 years in an imposing Renaissance-style mansion on New York’s Upper East Side, Knoedler & Co. has seen a lot of activity recently.
Director and president Ann Freedman has departed, the associate director has been fired and there’s been an exodus of important gallery artists.
Meanwhile, owner Michael A. Hammer has announced that he might move Knoedler into the hip Chelsea and Meatpacking areas.
Hammer, president and chairman of 8-31 Holdings,…
Wilbur and Hilary Ross at Art Basel Miami Beach
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By Lindsay Pollock
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross walked through Wednesday’s VIP opening of Art Basel Miami Beach, buying a six-and-a-half-foot-tall bronze monkey by the late French artist Francois-Xavier Lalanne whose sculptures cost between $300,000 and $600,000.
Opening day at the fair was an improvement over December 2008.
“Last year, there was a very bad tone and relatively few sales,” said Ross, standing beside his big chimp. “It feels busier than last year.…
Asher B. Edelman, via Bloomberg
Link to story here
By Lindsay Pollock
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — A dozen U.S. Marshals and police officers were among the first visitors to the Art Basel Miami Beach fair yesterday as they seized paintings by Fernand Leger, Joan Miro, Edgar Degas and Yves Klein following an insurance dispute between two dealers.
The paintings were confiscated from the fair at the convention center in Miami Beach, Florida, about 90 minutes before the V.I.P. opening at noon for thousands of invited guests including casino mogul Steve Wynn,…
