For all Al Taubman’s fabulous success running Sotheby’s these last 17 years, he forgot one thing, writes Thomas Hoving: “the basic point about what Sotheby’s had to be. Honest. The opposite of caveat emptor. Clean. Never-a-scandal. Caesar’s wife. Or, to quote from a renowned 1928 court of appeals ruling, ‘Not honesty alone but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive.'” – Artnet
Tag: 02.28.00
I REMEMBER SYDNEY
In 1964 Harold and LuEsther Mertz, a couple of rich American tourists, visited Australia. They decided to buy four or five Australian paintings but became so captivated by them they bought 148, assembling possibly the finest private collection of Australian paintings anywhere and shipped them off to America. Now they’re for sale, and Australian auction houses are lining up for the privilege. – Sydney Morning Herald
- Australian auction company competes with Sotheby’s and Christie’s for Mertz collection. – Sydney Morning Herald
PAYING FOR PAST SINS
The Smithsonian has begun renting itself out – its experts, its expertise, its artifacts – in an attempt to earn money to make up for budget cuts. Why? “The federal contribution to our budget has declined to the point that, while it will pay for some (not all) maintenance of our buildings and for about 75 percent or so of our staff, it will not cover any of the costs associated with mounting new exhibitions or educational programs. We no longer have the staff to do work in-house; contracting it out is very costly. And yet the public expects us to continue as we have in the past, and the belief that taxpayers’ money supports everything we do is widespread. It supports the infrastructure, barely, but nothing else. And from this deficit stems a great deal that is troubling, to those of us inside the institution as well as to outsiders like yourself.” – Washington Post
CHANGING TIMES
New leadership at the Harlem Studio Museum to forge new directions/definitions. – New York Times
STATUE ON THE RUN
A statue stolen 11 years ago from the Montreal Children’s Hospital, supposedly turned up last week as a prop on the television series “Due South.” Now the hospital is taking its search to the internet to track it down. – Ottawa Citizen
SIMON SAYS
As Simon Rattle takes his leave of England, a few thoughts on the state of modern musical life in Britain, Berlin and America. – London Times
HECKLE THIS
Frederic Stocken once briefly formed a group of anti-modern malcontents called The Hecklers, who made headlines when they disrupted the first revival of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s opera “Gawain” at Covent Garden in 1994. Now Stocken’s considered one of Britain’s brightest young composers. “He composes modern music according to pre-modern principles. He hates the idea that artists should, by definition, be provocative and sees no reason why the fundamental laws of harmony had to be broken by 20th century composers.” – Sequenza/21
- The darling of local royalty – a review. – Financial Times 02/23/00
- Another review – The Independent 02/23/00
- And another – The Guardian 02/23/00
THE TAXMAN COMETH
In the midst of a messy divorce, Pavarotti’s wife turns in the singer for tax evasion. – Sydney Morning Herald (Daily Telegraph)
i-FILMS AND THE FUTURE
“If you love Hollywood movie-making you are in heaven right now,” says filmmaker David Cronenberg. “If you are making so-called alternative films that is what you are fighting, not Hollywood per se, because they don’t care about you, but people’s expectation of what a movie is. Expectations have to change and I think something like the Internet might be the only way for that to happen.” – National Post (Canada) 02/28/00
NO PAIN, NO GAIN
“Pessimists are worried that Christie’s and Sotheby’s may not even survive the crisis. Derek Johns, a London dealer who was once a director of Sotheby’s, says, ‘It would be devastating if they became bankrupt.’ The optimists, on the other hand, say that Christie’s and Sotheby’s have survived drama and scandal in the past, and that a better, more competitive and less arrogant art market may eventually come out of all this.” – The Telegraph (UK)
- Previously: EBAY TO BUY SOTHEBY’S? Five-year-old eBay is reported to be interested in buying the troubled 256-year-old auction house. Valued by the stock market, eBay is worth nearly $20 billion, 16 times Friday’s closing price for Sotheby’s. – The Independent (UK)
- OF SINS AND SCANDALS: So what’s a little collusion? Other auction house practices may be legal, but they’re far from fair. – Artnewsroom.com
- SELLERS’ MARKET: “This sends a bolt of lightning through the marketplace,” said Scott Black, president of Delphi Management, a Boston money-management firm, and a serious collector who has spent tens of millions of dollars on fine paintings. “When you step into that auction room and raise your hand, you assume it’s a fair market. . . . I think a lot of people are going to think twice about the spring auctions.” – Washington Post