Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:40:31 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lindsay Pollock :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Lindsay+Pollock istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/national/barkin-jewelry-expected-to-fetch-15m/41181/ Mon, 9 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Before they divorced in February, actress Ellen Barkin and billionaire financier Ronald Perelman seemed to dovetail in at least one area: her love of glitzy jewelry and his deep pockets. The dazzling fruits of their shopping sprees went on view on Friday at Christie's International in New York. More than 100 pieces will be sold tomorrow and are expected to fetch as much as $15 million. Ms. Barkin has said she will use the auction proceeds to fund a movie-production company. Many high-profile... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/clearing-out-the-attic-for-spring-sales/13005/ Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST For several auction seasons, art collectors, speculators, and the acquisitive newly rich have vacuumed up almost everything tossed up on the block. Quality counts, but for big names, from Monet to Warhol, the brand seems to count more. Estimates have been high but bidders have been willing to go higher. Price record after price record has been smashed. At times the records themselves seem a quaint relic of the not-so-distant past. The art market shows no sign of slowing down. But unfortunately... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/arbus-traveling-circus/12576/ Thu, 21 Apr 2005 02:50:51 EST Diane Arbus may be dead, but she's having a moment. A major retrospective — the first in New York in three decades — is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nicole Kidman has reportedly signed on to play the photographer in an upcoming movie. And the upcoming photograph auctions at Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips de Pury & Company include several Arbus images and artifacts, timed to benefit from the recent attention paid to her life, legend, and art. Arbus may be only the second... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/curious-collection/12258/ Thu, 14 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Christie's auction of Important English Furniture tomorrow reflects the height of fine taste, with Chippendale chairs, satinwood games tables, and George I walnut cabinets. The sale is expected to fetch between $6 million-$10 million, nearly double the usual total. The sellers are a distinguished group, including the estates of book dealer Dr. Bernard Breslauer; English art historian and editor Denys Suttons; and tobacco heiress Doris Duke. The sale highlights, however - discreetly touted on... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/book-on-the-art-worlds-magazine-mogul/12046/ Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Louise T. Blouin MacBain wants to be the art world's first publishing mogul. Armed with hundreds of millions of dollars made in the classified advertising business, the blond beauty burst onto the scene as the CEO of auctioneer Phillips de Pury & Company in 2000, and has spent the past few years buying up a number of art magazines and specialty databases. Now she spends her days circling the globe, touting her plans. But as the 46-year-old launches her newest venture, a Web site offering... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/asian-works-go-east/11105/ Thu, 24 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Asian art used to be the domain of scholars and intellectuals. While it's easy to love a Degas, not everyone gets woozy over an agate snuff bottle, the glazes of Song ceramics, or the metallurgical brilliance of a 14th-century Japanese sword blade. But now that newly rich Chinese and Indian buyers are flooding the art market, Asian art is the field to watch. This growing pool of buyers, combined with the threat of wildly restrictive exportation laws proposed by the Chinese government, has... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/auction-with-training-wheels/10738/ Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Like it or not, contemporary art is trendy and fashionable. Shows at Chelsea galleries are instant sellouts, and last weekend, Manhattan was converted into a veritable contemporary art shopping mall, from the Armory Show art fair on the Westside Piers to the "Greater New York" show at P.S.1. Not surprisingly, one of the two major auction houses decided to get in on the action. Yesterday, Christie's held their first auction focusing on the ultra-new. The sale, forgettably titled "First Open,"... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/cliffs-notes-for-art-collectors/10388/ Thu, 10 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Tomorrow morning, three wealthy art-collecting couples - Sherry and Joel Mallin, Zoe and Joel Dictrow, and Ellen and Jerome Stern - will throw open their doors to groups of absolute strangers. The couples, all noted contemporary art buffs, have agreed to allow visitors, in town for the annual Armory Show art fair, to ogle works by such blue-chip artists as Donald Judd, Marlene Dumas, and Chuck Close in their apartments. These sanctioned snoop sessions are part of the fair organizers' effort to... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/where-you-can-sell-the-walls-of-your-french/10172/ Mon, 7 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST While many dealers reported brisk business at the opening weekend of the famed Maastricht art fair, few Americans were in sight. Aside from the obvious deterrent of a weak dollar, the Gods conspired to keep overseas travelers away from this year's European Fine Art Fair (Tefaf). The Dutch claim they rarely see snow, but last week the heavens dumped several inches, closing all but one of the runways at Amsterdam airport and leaving late-arriving American collectors in the lurch. Certainly most... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/smoke-filled-rooms-and-old-masters-too/10108/ Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Opening day at contemporary art fairs signals a mad search for future art stars. Eager to scoop up the newest, freshest, and brightest prospects, collectors focus on the wettest canvases, whipped up by artists with newly-minted MFAs. Yesterday afternoon, at the world's biggest art and antiques fair, it was the oldest folks who were the star attraction. As a light dusting of snow coated Maastricht, collectors and curators streamed into the massive convention center, bound for stands bearing Old... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/want-a-tiepolo-bring-your-roller-skates/9991/ Thu, 3 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands - After New York's Art Show went dark on Monday, Manhattan painting dealers Barbara Mathes, Salander-O'Reilly, Sperone Westwater, and Acquavella Galleries closed up their booths and hopped planes bound for a village nestled at the crossroads of Germany and Belgium. Today, the art world's spotlight shines on Maastricht, one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, where 202 of the world's top art and antique dealers have set up for an 11-day sell-a-thon. The European... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/turning-over-the-soil-at-adaa/9687/ Thu, 24 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST A youth quake has hit the Art Show. The upscale art fair, mounted each year by the Art Dealers Association of America, legendary as a local source for blue-chip Modernist and postwar work, has suddenly gotten hip. Last weekend, stacks of brochures advertising the decidedly uptown art fair, which opens tonight and runs through Sunday, were prominently displayed at some very downtown galleries. Booths belonging to contemporary art dealers have been given prime positioning; there are more of them... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/christies-cybersale/9405/ Thu, 17 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Christie's books and manuscripts department is used to handling cryptic material. They sell works written in Latin all the time. This weekend it will get wired with "The Origins of Cyberspace," a sale at Rockefeller Center that includes such treasures as a 1955 dittoed report on a computer-programming language and a 1966 "Brainiac Electric Brain Kit" (complete with bolts, bulbs, and wires), used to teach people concepts of digital computing. The February 23 auction could signal the start of a... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/bonhams-to-open-new-york-branch/9302/ Wed, 16 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Fifty-Seventh Street has long been a mainstay for gallery-hopping. Soon it will be the home of a major auction house as well. Yesterday, London-based auctioneers Bonhams announced it will be opening a branch on gallery row. The aggressively growing auctioneer has taken a space on the sixth floor of the Fuller Building, at 57th and Fifth Avenue, a building already brimming with gallery tenants. They will be renovating and hope to open their 5,000-square-foot office and auction room by springtime... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/by-any-other-name-it-wouldnt-sell-as-sweet/9042/ Thu, 10 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Like all sequels, next week's "Property From Kennedy Family Homes" auction at Sotheby's pales compared to the original - in this case, the original being the historic 1996 sale, at which some 6,000 objects from the Estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis were hammered down for $34.4 million. The sellers were Caroline Kennedy and her brother, John Jr., and the outlandish prices fetched for golf clubs ($772,500), rocking chairs ($453,500), and tape measures ($48,875) made headlines around the world... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/collectibles-collectors-with-patina-in-palm-beach/8842/ Mon, 7 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST PALM BEACH, Fla. - As I sat on a beige couch in the booth at the Palm Beach Art and Antiques Fair belonging to Belgian dealer Axel Vervoordt, a man strode by carrying a furry, white pooch in a giant Louis Vuitton shoulder bag. The dog was utterly content. The mustachioed owner, meanwhile, was on the hunt. His face pulled tight by the hand of a surgeon, his skin dyed the most peculiarly unnatural shade of orange-brown, he looked more manmade than any of the beautiful objects assembled by Mr... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/go-south-young-art-dealers/8705/ Thu, 3 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Florida conjures many things for New Yorkers. Sandy beaches, gated golf communities, and the errant hurricane, to name a few. But a premier destination for buying art? Yet in the last few years, the land of fruity cocktails, trailer parks, and retirement nirvana, has played host to a number of serious art fairs. It started with the wildly successful contemporary fair Art Basel Miami Beach, which this year drew thousands of collectors and browsers to a packed convention center where blue-chip... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/sothebys-looks-for-enlightened-collectors/8351/ Thu, 27 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST This week Sotheby's expansive 10th floor exhibition galleries were filled with artworks that appeared as staid as can be. Gilt frames, powdered wigs, Empire dresses, pudgy cupids, chateaux, and portraits of Duchesses ringed the room. Vinyl letters on the wall indicated a sale with an imposing name: "Art of the Enlightenment." Though the material seems conservative to the modern eye - especially all that big 1780s hair - the period was one in which radical changes were brewing, including... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/christies-new-approach-to-old-masters/8003/ Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST This weekend, Old Master paintings will dot the walls at Sotheby's and Christie's. A hundred years ago, the Mellons, Morgans, and Rockefellers battled for a chance to possess such early treasures. Today, while the contemporary art market rockets up, the Old Masters market just plods along. "Old Master prices have remained depressed," said dealer Richard Feigen. "Prices are really lower than they were 15 years ago." Tastes have changed considerably, and most of the best older works are in museum... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/tea-for-two-three-or-5-million/7661/ Thu, 13 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST For the next few weeks, Manhattan's antique scene will be overrun with artifacts once owned by America's earliest moguls. The auctions and antique shows that cluster around what has come to be called "Americana Week" celebrate 18th- and 19th-century proto-Trumps: Those plucky pilgrims and displaced patricians who built dynasties wresting land from Native Americans or sending trading ships to the West Indies. Christie's and Sotheby's are both fielding massive auctions, and a number of antiques... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/in-a-booming-market-houses-hike-commissions/7257/ Thu, 6 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST What does an auction house do when it has its best year in ages and still gets an earful from angry investors? Raise the commissions, that's what. In 2004, the art and auction market seemed unstoppable. Blame it on the billionaires, the hedge funders, the bouncing stock market, a strong euro, or the eternal quest to possess. In nearly every auction category, from Chinese ceramics to contemporary art, new records were set. Sotheby's reported total sales of $2.66 billion for 2004, a gigantic... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/have-you-seen-this-boy/6731/ Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST For a time, he was the most famous boy in all of Manhattan - and maybe the world. This spring, Picasso's delicate androgynous waif, the 1905 "Garcon a la Pipe," burst onto the record books. On May 5, during Sotheby's auction of property formerly owned by John Hay Whitney and Betsey Cushing Whitney, a painting of a wreathed street urchin sold for $104 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for an artwork. The boy in blue appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world. Then the... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/for-design-week-sothebys-is-where-its/6413/ Thu, 16 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The design sales are on, with four auctioneers showcasing more than 100 years in home decor. While decorative arts and design sales don't usually get as frenzied as fine art sales (as the painting and sculpture auctions are dubbed), this season's results promised to be strong, particularly at Sotheby's. The action started last week. Christie's December 8 sale was the first for a new team of specialists cobbled together with talent from the auction and museum world following the springtime... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/china-opens-its-doors-to-christies-sothebys/6004/ Thu, 9 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST There are an estimated 200 auction houses in mainland China, but not a single salesroom run by international giants Sotheby's and Christie's. Come Saturday, that may change. The market for Chinese artworks is booming both within and outside China. But so far, only Chinese companies (and the government) have been permitted to profit from transactions in Hong Kong, a free port. Starting December 11, China will permit foreign auction houses to set up shop on the mainland. This change is one of... Lindsay Pollock http://www.nysun.com/arts/artful-gift-giving/6072/ Thu, 9 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST In 1926, a shrewd art dealer in Greenwich Village, Edith Halpert, mounted a "Christmas Exhibition" with small oils, watercolors, and etchings priced $10 to $50. In the years that followed, collectors lined up outside her Downtown Gallery for the annual show, purchasing affordable works by little-known artists such as Stuart Davis, Charles Sheeler, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Savvy collectors, such as Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, frequented these shows. They bought gifts, and oftentimes, a little... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/miami-fair-manages-to-swoop-in-on-new-york-art/5785/ Mon, 6 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST Last week millions of dollars changed hands at the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. By Saturday afternoon, four days into the fair, dealers were worn out from all the frenzied action on the floor. Will Ameringer, of 57th Street gallery Ameringer & Yohe, had traded his J.P. Tods for white Nikes. Withered Band-Aids poked out from pumps all over the bustling convention hall floor. The five-day selling stretch, from Wednesday to Sunday, saw banner sales for many of the 190 international dealers... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/wheres-the-art-try-the-warehouses/5781/ Fri, 3 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST MIAMI BEACH - Yesterday morning the action at Art Basel shifted away from the cavernous convention center and across town to an area called Northwest Miami. Actually, that's not what it's called anymore. Officially, Miami has renamed a formerly downtrodden region the "Wynwood Art District." Yesterday morning, before the fair opened at noon, it was crawling with limousines, buses, and taxis bound for a smattering of galleries and private museums. "This neighborhood is not so good," said Luis... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/its-on-your-mark-in-miami-beach/5639/ Thu, 2 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST MIAMI - Forget bikinis and sun block. For the thousands of art collectors who flew to Art Basel Miami Beach, the mammoth contemporary art fair, over the past few days, other items topped the packing list. These include a floor plan of the 190 galleries setting up shop at the local convention center, a few hundred thousand dollars to drop on art, and - given the frenzied market for contemporary art - some reliable running sneakers. "People will run through and people will have incredibly bad... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/todays-buyers-just-cant-wait/4747/ Fri, 12 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST After two weeks and six auctions, one thing is clear. The art market is hitting heights not seen in years. Last week's Monets and Picassos turned out to be a warm-up for this week's contemporary art sales. The feeding frenzy began last Wednesday when Christie's offered up a strong selection of Impressionist and Modern art. Expectations of a strong market had persuaded sellers to part with some serious star material, including a brushy Monet hammered down for $20.2 million. Buyers spent $128.2... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/elephant-in-the-room/4748/ Fri, 12 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Last night the Pope beat out a baby elephant at Phillips, de Pury & Co., setting the second world record of the week for a work by Maurizio Cattelan sold at auction. The 1999 "La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour)," an installation depicting a meteorite crashing down on the Pope, which sold for $886,000 at Christie's in 2001, sold for $3 million. The artist's first record of the week was set just the night before at Christie's, when a baby elephant made from resin and covered with a sheet spurred... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/another-stellar-sale-at-christies/4678/ Thu, 11 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Last night's sale of contemporary and postwar art at Christie's confirmed the art market is roaring as it hasn't done for more than a decade. The house sold 63 lots, raking in $92.5 million and setting 10 new records for works by individual artists sold at auction. And only four lots failed to sell. As at the Sotheby's sale Tuesday night, money seemed not to matter. Last night buyers did not seem turned off by prices that had no historical precedent. Twenty-six lots sold for more than $1... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/record-for-rothko-as-postwar-works-soar/4604/ Wed, 10 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST The art-market bubble just got a little bigger. Last night Sotheby's sold $93 million in contemporary art at a sale that showed buyers are willing to fork over unprecedented sums for marquee artworks, even if the artist is still alive and breathing. With little fanfare, auction records were smashed all over the place. "It's still a rising tide," said dealer Marc Glimcher, making his way down the crowded salesroom aisles after the auction. "The sale speaks pretty well of the buyers." Ten records... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/bringing-the-market-into-focus/4457/ Mon, 8 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST It will be hard for this week's sales of contemporary and postwar works to top the results the big auction houses netted last spring. In May, Contemporary art seemed hotter than even the Impressionist and Modern material then flying off the block. Christie's set nine artists records at its spring sale, pulling in a whopping $102 million. Meanwhile Sotheby's totaled a lesser $65.7 million, but sold 100% of it material - the first time it had ever done so. Phillips, de Pury & Co. scored with... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/market-hits-a-speed-bump-at-sothebys/4332/ Fri, 5 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST The rain wasn't the only thing dampening spirits on York Avenue last night. At Sotheby's highly anticipated sale of Impressionist and Modern art, 61 lots expected to total between $203 million and $275 million missed the low estimate, bringing just $194 million. While 78% of works did sell, and the overall total was the highest for the house in 14 years, several paintings the house had high hopes for failed to find willing buyers. Sotheby's put on a stiff upper lip, reporting that it was... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/bidders-reward-bold-estimates-at-christies/4309/ Thu, 4 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST A storm of fierce bidding whipped through the Christie's salesroom last night as buyers spent $128.2 million on 58 Impressionist and Modern artworks. The sale fared better than most dealers had expected, given the uneven quality of the works on offer and supposed pickiness of today's most active collectors. The result confirmed that the art market bubble has definitely not burst. Indeed, the market appears more robust than ever. And it set high hopes for the Sotheby's sale tonight - when works... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/running-with-the-bull-market/3899/ Thu, 28 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST Next week's results certainly make for a nail-biter. But for the few thousand art collectors, dealers, and auction houses who trade in million-dollar artworks, the drama won't end with election returns. The real action gets going on Wednesday and Thursday night, when Christie's and Sotheby's mount their fall Impressionist and Modern art sales. Contemporary art follows on November 9 and 10 and at Phillips de Pury & Company on November 11. During the next two weeks, at least $500 million in... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/old-money-and-new-money-on-the-block/3576/ Thu, 21 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST The rich are indeed different from you and me. They are also different from one another. On Saturday, two diametrically opposite collections will go to auction in the city. Textbook exemplars of old and new money, they demonstrate two facts of life that keep the auction houses in business: death and debt. Sotheby's is hosting the old money sale, the auction of the contents of Italian socialite Marella Agnelli's Park Avenue apartment, expected to bring $7 million-$9 million. A death appears to... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/fernwood-art-investments-taps-david-nash/3296/ Fri, 15 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST Fernwood Art Investments, an art investment and research fund aiming to tap the booming art market by pooling the resources of investors to purchase blue chip and emerging art, has announced the addition of an impressive slate of experts to executive and advisory roles. The new hires include art dealer David Nash; former executive vice president of the Metropolitan Museum, Ashton Hawkins; and Marlborough Gallery president, Pierre Levai. Since July, when Mr. Taub announced the company, Fernwood... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/cleaning-house/3229/ Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST At 6p.m. tonight, a sliver of Elton John's famous photo collection is scheduled to sell at Christie's. Photo collections don't usually get star billing, or an evening tee time. But Christie's is gambling that the sale of 80 or so pictures - all pretty, pleasing, and with a rock 'n' roll provenance - will draw both photography lovers and Rocket Man fans, and send bids over the sale's $600,000-$900,000 presale estimate. Meanwhile, at the other houses, there are iconic images for sale this week by... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/leightons-goodbye-is-christies-gain/2823/ Thu, 7 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST Fred Leighton, Madison Avenue jeweler to the stars and those with star-sized wallets, is a retailing phenomenon. In the 1970s, when he was known as Murray Mondschien, he hawked Mexican wedding dresses from a folksy shop in Greenwich Village. By the end of the decade, he had moved uptown and begun selling antique jewelry, creating a retail market for baubles formerly traded only in the 47th Street jewelry district. Estate jewelry was then considered demode, about as sexy as someone's grandmother... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-yorks-finest-wine-sales/2464/ Thu, 30 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST This year marks the 10th anniversary of wine auctions in New York. Only in 1994 did the State Legislature legalize wine auctions. In less than a decade, New York has surpassed London as the seat of the wine world. About $65 million is auctioned each year in New York - a significant chunk of the $100 million worldwide total. Whereas London auctions cater to wine merchants, in New York private collectors dominate buying. And while Sotheby's and Christie's rule the roost in London, in the past... Lindsay Pollock http://www.nysun.com/arts/fall-auctions-heating-up/2491/ Thu, 30 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Sotheby's was first out of the gate this week, announcing the highlights for its fall sales of Impressionist and Modern art. The projected sale total - upwards of $208 million for the November auction - is the highest total since the spring of 1990. It reflects an optimistic outlook on the market: People don't sell their treasures when the market is weak. Highlights of the sale include a Gauguin and a Modigliani. "Maternite (II)" by Paul Gauguin is estimated to sell for $40 to $50 million. The... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/guests-from-the-winter-palace/2179/ Thu, 23 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Last spring, record crowds lined up outside Sotheby's for a glimpse of some of the world's glitziest baubles. Several Faberge eggs, from the Forbes Collection, were exhibited at Sotheby's before being packed off to Russia. In February, a Russian oil baron had made Sotheby's and the Forbes family an offer they couldn't refuse - reported to be in the neighborhood of $100 million - and the eggs were pulled from the April auction calendar. No matter. Some 15,000 people lined up at Sotheby's just to... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/wasps-gone-wild/1979/ Tue, 21 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Racing around town to all the fall auctions could be a fulltime job - for someone with endless money, patience, and square footage to decorate. For most New Yorkers these things are usually in short supply. Great sales, however, are not. This season's highlights range from Sotheby's upcoming sale of gilt furniture from Fiat heiress (and Princess) Marella Agnelli to Christie's sale of jewels from the private collection of Madison Avenue bauble king Fred Leighton. Those looking for fair and... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/how-much-for-that-buddha-in-the-window/1822/ Thu, 16 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Asia Week comes twice a year, in March and September, anchored by weeklong auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's. March is usually the much larger affair, as international dealers descend to present their wares at the Asian Art Fair at the Park Avenue Armory and galleries around town. For collectors, it's mandatory. Next week the other, more modest Asia Week begins. This time around, the auction houses decided to ramp up the fall offerings. Their optimism is clearly justified after the success... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/johnson-johnson-widow-sells-worlds-priciest-piece/1493/ Thu, 9 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Christie's announced yesterday they will be selling the famed "Badminton Cabinet" - the furniture world's answer to the $104 million Picasso. The ornate cabinet, made of ebony and gilt bronze and inlaid with mosaic of colorful stones, became the most expensive piece of furniture in the world when it sold at Christie's London in 1990 for $15.2 million. It is even listed as such in the Guinness Book of Records. Now it seems the buyer is ready to cash out. On December 9 in London, Christie's will... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/cashing-in-on-the-man-in-black/1495/ Thu, 9 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST The first viewing of the Johnny and June Carter Cash auction at Sotheby's caused a stir, but probably not the sort the auction house had been expecting. It wasn't fans of the late singer, delirious over his knee-high alligator cowboy boots [LOT 208] or June's acoustic guitars [LOT 95]. Rather, several hundred protesters came together outside Sotheby's Upper East Side home to protest the event, held to honor the GOP delegates from Tennessee. Protesters wore black, carried cardboard guitars, sang... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/from-their-living-room-to-yours/1246/ Thu, 2 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Most anything the big auction houses scrounge up for sale this fall season is bound to be something of a letdown. After a spring auction season dominated by Sotheby's Whitney auction and the $104 million Picasso that set a record for a painting sold at auction, there's nowhere to go but down. But the mood is optimistic in Gavel-land. The art market has been on a dramatic upswing, and the earnings reports released by Sotheby's and Christie's for the first six months of 2004 showed big increases... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/still-life-in-the-art-book-trade/885/ Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EST New York has always been a haven for lovers of both art and books. Like the rest of the ever-consolidating book business, art bookstores have taken a hit in recent years. Just this past year, several shops have vanished. Gone are OAN, which for 20 years specialized in African and Oceanic books, and Archivia, a Madison Avenue outpost for decorative arts books. Hacker, a 57th street institution since the 1940s, was shuttered in June. The situation has not been helped by the uncertain state of... LINDSAY POLLOCK http://www.nysun.com/arts/at-last-art-at-christies-you-can-afford/201/ Thu, 12 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EST Usually names like Pollock and Picasso draw the oohhs and ahhs at Christie's. But for the past two weeks, it's Jimmy Krzyzanowski who has been getting the rave reviews. And the artwork in question is not made from paint and canvas, but cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Ballantine Ale. In one of the auction house's elegant exhibition galleries - a venue more commonly used to present pedigreed collections of Tiffany glass and British sporting pictures - Mr. Krzyzanowski, a warehouse supervisor for...