This past May, I wrote a blog about the art seen on the walls of talking heads from the news shows, broadcasting from their homes since the pandemic began. My wife, who suggested that I write the post, was struck in particular by the painting on the wall by the...
If you’ve been crazy about dinosaurs since you were a kid and you have several million dollars burning a hole in your pocket, mark your calendar for October 6. That’s the evening Christie’s in New York is selling the 40-foot-long skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex,...
One of the most celebrated artist/collector confrontations of the 20th century occurred at Sotheby’s (then called Sotheby Parke Bernet) in New York on October 18, 1973, when taxi-magnate Robert Scull was selling 50 paintings from his well-known collection of Pop Art....
There’s a pleasant fantasy, held even by those who should know better, that goes something like this: You’re on a day trip in the country, and you happen across a little auction being held in a tent in a quaint village. A small painting that attracts you is being...
Almost forty years ago, working for Ira Spanierman Gallery, I was participating in the San Francisco Art and Antiques Show. Regional antiques shows were a major opportunity to acquire works for our New York-based gallery. In those days before cell phones, we took out...
