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Tag Archives: Economics

Rumor Mill: Jeffrey Deitch’s Reign At MOCA Over?

Late last night, LA Weekly reported that Jeffrey Deitch will be leaving the LA MOCA at the end of the month. Despite increasing attendance during his reign at the Los Angeles institution and bringing in a fresh vision for the museum, there continue to be financial woes. Signs of discontent came to a head also with the controversial resignation of chief curator Paul Schimmel as well as multiple artists leaving the board under Deitch’s watch. It will be interesting to see what is next for Deitch as well as […]

Rumor Mill: David Choe – The 200 Million Dollar Artist?

So, you may remember the internet frenzy last month when photos leaked of David Choe (featured) painting and tagging up a storm at the new Facebook headquarters at the request of Mark Zuckerberg. What we didn’t know was that when he decorated the previous FB building with his murals several years ago, David elected for stock options instead of cash payment.  The New York Times now reports that those shares are worth upwards of $200 million based on the new IPO calculations. If the speculation […]

Auctions: Dreweatts “Urban Contemporary Art” Sale (October)

Last night in London, Dreweatts kicked off an important week of auctions at the major houses with decidedly weak results. At a mere shadow of the £300,800 – 429,400 estimate, their October Urban Contemporary Art Sale realized a total of £166,320 ($258,646) non-inclusive of Buyer’s Premiums, barely half the low end estimate. These lackluster results lie in stark contrast to some of the compelling sales booked during various September auctions, where record results were made at Bonhams Urban Art Sale, MTV:REDEFINE, as well as with […]

SDCC ’10: Frank Frazetta Conan Painting Sells for Record Price

Although this unfortunately occurred two months after the artist’s death, the above painting, “Conan the Destroyer”, just sold for $1.5 million – a record for a work by Frank Frazetta. The piece was sold by the estate in San Diego, during this year’s Comic Con. Franzetta was 82 when he died and was a legend among fantasy artists. He produced work for comic books, album covers, and movie posters, among others and has his own museum showing his work. In recent years, his children have […]

Jeff Koons & Damien Hirst Prices Drop 50%

Two of the biggest stars of the art boom in the latter part of the last decade, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, were bound to feel the effects of the down economy. It’s taken some time to compile the data of all the fallout but it looks like their works have taken about a 50% hit in value since those happier times. On the brighter side, sounds as though the fairly or unfairly portrayed scapegoats of the art world’s extravagance should make a recovery eventually, […]

Art Review 2009 Power 100 List

The highly anticipated annual Art Review Power 100 list was just released on Thursday.  The list this year reflects the fundamental changes that the global financial crisis has unleashed onto the art world.   Almost a third of the entries are new to the list.  Previous top artists and collectors have had steep drops.  Steadily rising up the ranks are powerful and networked curators that have a huge influence on what gets seen and promoted. More, including full list, after the jump…

Viewpoints: Traditional Museums Set Record Attendence Non-Traditionally

The recession has been hitting everyone hard, even the museums are being hit in their wallets. From the MOCA needing a bail out to the Rose Art Museum selling off their collection, museums seem to be dealing with declining attendance and many have been forced to reduce payroll or take mandatory staff furloughs to make ends meet. Yet there’s a silver lining to every situation. Some museums have found ways to boost attendance by tapping into alternative “non-traditional” art forms. Museum mainstays such as Rembrandt, […]

Getty to Slash Budget as Trust has Lost $2 Billion in Last Year

The Getty Center (where we will be visiting for Kehinde Wiley’s talk) will surely be slashing their budget soon as news has come out that the J. Paul Getty Trust has lost amost $2 billion over the last year. We are sure other institutions don’t feel too badly for them yet as their trust is still the behemoth in the museum world at $4.5 billion. The closest endowment to the Getty’s is that of the Met (NY) at $2.1 billion, which announced plans Thursday to […]

Yves Saint Laurent Auction Drama & Fallout

Judging from the results of the YSL auction we previously reported on, it seems that in the high-end art world, provenance is as important as the artwork itself. The Yves Saint Laurent name, just like Andy Warhol’s and Jackie Kennedy’s name did for estate sales in the past, enamored bidders and helped draw in a stunning $477 million, beating estimates with nearly 96 percent of the 689 lots sold. Hard to know what one auction with such celebrity attached to it means for the general […]

Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Auction

Christie’s will be auctioning off the eclectic collection of the late Yves Saint Laurent next week starting Feb 23rd. The incredible collection of nearly 700 artworks were accumulated over decades by Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé valued at up to $425 million including Old Master drawings, Roman sculptures, Renaissance bronzes and works by Ingres, Géricault, Frans Hals, Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Léger and Mondrian. There are hopes among the art community that a highly publicized event, not seen since the heights of the Damien […]