Have You Seen This Boy?
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
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 painting vanished. Now, some seven months later, there have still been no reported “Garcon” sightings. It is astounding to consider that the most expensive painting in the world has been secreted away without a trace.
The seller, the Whitney family’s non-for-profit Greentree Foundation, didn’t allow a single clue about the buyer to circulate. The director of the Greentree Foundation, Richard Schaffer, said this week that auction proceeds have already been added to the foundation’s investment portfolio and are helping support the foundation’s mission to spread world peace. But he had no idea who bought the painting.
Immediately following the sale, Sotheby’s staffers were besieged with questions about the identity of the mystery buyer. But it seemed the name was kept from most of Sotheby’s employees. Indeed, after the sale, Sotheby’s experts suggested that the buyer was so underground, and so out of the mainstream, that the boy was gone for good. “People were saying we would never find out who bought it,” said Artnet magazine editor Walter Robinson.
Still, there has been plenty of speculation about the buyer’s identity, with talk circling around three main contenders: the software tycoon, the casino mogul, and the pasta maker.
“The principle and most reliable rumor is it ended up belonging to a major pasta manufacturer in Italy,” said Picasso biographer John Richardson, who in an interview with The New York Sun last year first predicted the painting would sell for more than $100 million. “He is said to be the buyer of many other important paintings that have come for sale.”
Guido Barilla, the pasta billionaire who is said to keep his art collection in Switzerland, was also mentioned by several other dealers as the likely buyer. One Upper East Side dealer, who asked that his name not be used (in the hopes that Barilla might someday become a client), said the Picasso would appeal to Mr. Barilla. “It’s his style of picture. He’s basically like a big game hunter out for trophies.”
“I think it left the United States because the Americans can’t keep their mouths shut,” said fine art appraiser Amy Papola. “If an American had bought it, we would have gotten a press release.”
That logic is an argument against two other likely contenders. Immediately following the May auction, names of possible billionaire buyers were tossed around. Everyone from financier Henry Kravis to banking heiress Lily Safra was on the list. But two of the most credible candidates were Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn.
Both men are known to buy mega art and have pots of cash. Both men also have representatives who politely declined to comment. “We don’t comment on those types of questions,” said Mr. Allen’s spokesman, Michael Nank. “That’s an official no comment.”
Over at the Wynn empire, Kimberly Ryan, a public relations representative for Wynn’s casino arm, said she didn’t know whether her boss had bought the $104 million Picasso. “I remember the chatter,” said Ms. Ryan. “It’s an unverified, floating rumor.” While Mr. Wynn usually doesn’t try to hide his purchases, there are two solid reasons for keeping him on the short list.
First, he loves Picasso. One of his favorite possessions is Picasso’s 1932 “Le Reve,” a painting he loves so much he considered naming his next Vegas casino after it – until market research suggested that was a bad plan. The new casino, named “Wynn” will include an art gallery (and a Ferrari dealership). Until it opens on April 28, it will be difficult to know what artworks Wynn might have on tap. After all, what better way to draw even more attention to the Picasso purchase than by building suspense?
For the striking thing about the Garcon vanishing at auction is that most buyers pay up at auction not for anonymity but for a chance to make a name for themselves. “Some collectors want privacy,” said art advisor Thea Westreich, “and some want everyone to know what they bought.”
How is it possible to keep such a big purchase quiet? In the world of billionaire art collectors, privacy – even in the very public auction forum – can be had, and certainly can be bought. “There are people who go to great lengths to remain anonymous,” said dealer Andrea Crane of Jan Krugier Gallery. “It can be done.”
Ms. Crane said a buyer could bid using a dealer they trust, who remains hidden as well, bidding either by phone or with hand signals from a sequestered spot in the auction room. The auction house then invoices the dealer, and the buyer makes payment via the dealer. This keeps the buyer hidden not only from the general collecting crowd but the auction house itself.
“It’s possible that even Sotheby’s doesn’t know who the buyer is,” said Eileen Kinsella, Editor of the ART newsletter, a publication that tracks the art market.
“The auction houses and dealers are extremely skilled at doing whatever it is they need to do to sell a $104 million picture,” said Ms. Westreich. “But sooner or later most often the information comes out.” After all, even reclusive art collectors have dinner parties where a painting might be spotted.
The question is: What’s on the plates?
Could it be pasta?