Archives for May 2010

Bill Ruprecht, Sotheby's presidentI've said it before in the Wall Street Journal (and numerous times on CultureGrrl). But it looks like I'm going have to say it again. Even Bill Ruprecht, the financially savvy president and chief executive of Sotheby's, hasn't yet gotten the message. So let's review:If you're going to compare sale totals to presale estimates, you've got to use … [Read more...] about Statistical Shenanigans: Misrepresenting Auction-Sale Results

Matisse, "Bouquet de Fleurs pour le Quatorze Juillet," 1919Poor Tobias Meyer was pulling teeth at tonight's Impressionist/modern sale at Sotheby's, trying to extract a few extra increments from bidders who finally managed to cough up $25.5 million (slightly above the $18 million to $25 million presale estimate) for the top lot---Matisse's decorative "Bouquet de Fleurs Pour le … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Slog: Excruciatingly Slow Bidding at Impressionist/Modern Sale

James MurdochAt its annual shareholders meeting tomorrow, Sotheby's intends to add a new member to its board---James Murdoch, son of Rupert, who, according to Fortune magazine, is "the likely successor to take over his father's empire." That empire, of course, is News Corp.---the media giant that owns (among many other news organizations), the Wall Street Journal. James is … [Read more...] about Sotheby’s Nominates James Murdoch (Rupert’s son) to its Board

Two knowledgeable Christie's sources (NOT Conor Jordan, above) this morning informed me (on the record but not for attribution by name) that the anonymous $106.48-million purchaser of Picasso's portrait of his sleeping paramour, Marie-Thérèse Walter, was NOT the same party who received a financing fee from the auction house for being the third-party guarantor of the coveted … [Read more...] about The $106.48-Million Mistress: No Asterisk for Record Picasso Price

Christie's catalogue for the Brody CollectionAs an addendum to my auction post earlier today, I should let you know that I have an unrelated event to attend tonight and will not be joining the press scrum at Christie's. Nor will I be following the action online in real time. In fact, because I'm on deadline for an article I'm writing that is related to my recent Southern … [Read more...] about Question for Christie’s Press Conference: Should Picasso Price Get an Asterisk?

Record Breaker? Picasso, "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," 1932, offered tonight at Christie's It seems to me that many art-market reporters have been too gullible in buying the auctioneers' and dealers' spin that art prices are going to come roaring back during the coming round of evening Impressionist/modern and contemporary sales. Consider this from Carol Vogel of the NY … [Read more...] about Bullish Art-Market Predictions: Irrational Exuberance? Tilted Playing Field?

ArtsJournal's downtime last week was due to dastardly technological deeds involving the ad server for our blogs' righthand columns. Those columns are still down at this writing. In the event that you actually took seriously my invitation last week to welcome me back from my travels "by decorating my bare ad space and activating my dormant 'Donate' button," the benefaction … [Read more...] about Filling An ArtsJournal Void: Images on CultureGrrl Classifieds!

Part of the site for the planned Downtown Whitney, as seen from the High Line Getting back to my New York roots after my Southern sojourn, I need to keep my prior promise to take on art critic Roberta Smith's recent Whitney screed, which followed close upon another negative bit of prominently placed NY Times coverage by Carol Vogel and Kate Taylor that raised doubts about some … [Read more...] about Downtown Whitney: NY Times-Generated Crisis of Confidence—Part II

I'm back from my Southern sojourn, y'all, and coincidentally, so is ArtsJournal---again available to all art-lings on every web browser known to man and in four of the five continents. (No Antarctican art-lings yet, to my knowledge.) I missed you and hope some of you missed me. I do see from my traffic stats that many of you (like me) have returned to your blog addiction.So … [Read more...] about MeTube: The Grrl is Back (with some Tinterow Tintinabulation)!