Ooh, ah, Garros!" We are the winners, the children call and answer in French, the latest collectors.
In June 1999, at Christie's in Los Angeles, the Basquiat had cost the late collector Theodore J. Forstmann a mere $442,500.
The finest works had been donated to the museum, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, founded in Washington by the late collector.
Sprituality rather than sexuality shapes this baroque painting of an ancient myth, which has just become a permanent part of the National Gallery collection as part of the bequest to the nation of the late collector Sir Denis Mahon.
Auction-house catalogs rarely dwell on the fact that all the greatest works from the Sackler collection are now ensconced in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, which was set up as a foundation by the late collector.
Another Léger, "La Tasse de thé," done in 1921 in a style retaining echoes of the artist's previous "mechanical period, " and which was acquired by the late collector in the New York art trade, failed to match the low estimate and sold against the reserve for $8.14 million.
Avila had come up empty, but it was Marciniak's lists that may establish a key piece of circumstantial evidence in the case against Vendetti — three of the comics that he'd put up for sale online match those stolen from the late collector, including that issue of "The Human Torch".
Even better for auction houses, it also glamorizes the thousands of modest pieces left out of the Arthur M. Sackler donations to various institutions after these had taken their pick — the late collector was a compulsive buyer with a penchant for acquiring objects in bulk.
A work by Gerhard Richter that belonged to the late collector and philanthropist Linda Pace will be sold at an auction in November to help fund the creation of a new art space for Pace's foundation in Texas.
