Russian Dealer Suing Luhring Augustine Gallery

The Moscow art dealer Gary Tatintsian has sued the Luhring Augustine gallery for a breach of agreement of $3 million with regards to art by artists George Condo and Richard Prince:

April 2008- 12 new Condo paintings for a total of $2.7 million were put on reserve to Gary Tatintsian by the Luhring Gallery (representing George Condo)

July 2008- Tatintsian pays $1 million in advance and expects the paintings to come in bit by bit a year from now. The contract states two Condo paintings are to be delivered every month and Tatintsian will pay for the paintings as they are delivered.

August 11 2009- Tatintsian files a lawsuit against Luhring Augustine

  

" 'We paid a year ago and haven’t seen the paintings,' Tatintsian said in a telephone interview. 'During this time, I saw eight works Condo did for other collectors. I won’t let anyone treat me like this.' " - From a Bloomberg article reporting on the filed lawsuit against Luhring Augustine

The story continues:

"This summer, Luhring Augustine offered the dealer five Condo paintings valued at $1.04 million and matching the specifications outlined in the agreement, according to Netzer.

'Tatintsian has steadfastly refused to accept delivery of the paintings or even to look at them,' Netzer said in an e- mailed statement.

Tatintsian said the gallery offered the paintings too late and that they weren’t the ones he wanted. "

When things don't go according to plan, lawsuits always seem to get brought up. However, in the lack of transparency in the art world this is still a difficult field to grasp or to settle in a court room because who is to say that the Condo paintings weren't the ones he wanted if they haven't even been created, but simply consigned as 'new contemporary artwork.' When is the artist going to have a say in where the artworks actually belong?

To read more on issues of art appropriation and art law see my article entitled Who Does Art Belong To?

Andy Warhol Michael Jackson Portrait Sold...for now

The Andy Warhol Michael Jackson portrait seems to have caused a lot of ups and downs in the art world, especially after Michael Jackson's death.

Here is a brief timeline highlighting relevant dates on the journey of this Andy Warhol portrait:

May 2009 Sotheby's sold for $278,500

June 25 2009 Michael Jackson dies at age 50

July 12 2009 On the last day and at the very last minute of ArtHamptons, due to the death of Michael Jackson, the Vered Gallery decides to have this piece consigned as part of a silent auction.

However, on July 12 the Vered Gallery decides to remove the portrait from the auction, most likely due to the lack of organization and timing to create a proper auction - the emotional stress of Michael Jackson's death was still very strong worldwide.

August 19 2009 New deadline for a second attempt at creating a silent auction for the Michael Jackson painting. At 8pm, the minimum bid is $800,000. This time, the piece had traveled to Los Angeles and New York for previews alerting interested buyers that this artwork is on offer.

Sadly, the death of Michael Jackson is no longer the most discussed topic worldwide, so some of that fever has died down. The result? The portrait went for an undisclosed amount (first they said it went for "millions" then changes that to over $1 million) by an unidentified buyer. It was estimated to go for up to $10 million. What an anti-climax....

A Bloomberg article mentions "Lehr (the gallery owner) said she expects the man who bought it from the gallery to consign it back to the gallery to resell." How long is this saga going to continue?

It seems to be harder and harder to differentiate what is actually going on - has there actually been popular demand they are just hiding from the public or is this discretion and silence a sign the auction was a failure?

Art Consultants and Advisers Increase in the world

I came across an article observing how there has been a rise in art consultants and advisers with the layoffs occurring in art auction houses, the art advising department of UBS, museums, and the list goes on as a consequence of the dire economy. The logical and smart move is to put your art experience and knowledge into becoming an art consultant.
Inside the world of the art adviser gives some insight as to why this might or might not be a good career move.

The article says
"So what do the advisers do? “The good ones give us, as dealers, access to great collections,” says Andrew Silewicz of Sprüth Magers (2.0/D4). “They focus their clients and do the legwork for them.” This means, as well as buying art, they are curating, keeping abreast of the art world and dealing with loans and exhibitions. And according to Basilico, the adviser can have an educational role for newcomers to the market: “He or she can turn a new buyer into a speculator—or a collector,” he says."

"So how do you find a good adviser? Word of mouth is worth its weight in fine art. “We typically get our clients through recommendation,” says Basilico. “We check new clients very carefully before accepting reservations,” says Goodrow. And Schwartzman advises the starter collector to be guided by their local museum community."

Overall to be a good adviser experience is key.

MutualArt.com art information resource

In art consulting one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to be constantly updated with news upcoming in the art world. By news I mean if there's any mention of emerging contemporary artists, gallery exhibitions to take note of, or important auctions that might interest clients.

This is easier said than done because there are so many art news sources to choose from. My favorites are Artforum and the Arts section of the New York Times, but this is not enough to get a well-rounded perspective of what is going on.

Luckily for us MutualArt.com came along to save the day (or simply to make our lives easier and more efficient.) This is a useful art resource website dedicated to collecting all worldwide art information news so readers can have one place to go to, login, and have updated articles featured everyday.

Even better than this it also tells you of art events in your area currently happening (gallery openings, museum exhibits, art auction house sales, educational programs, and so on.)

Also as an art consultant, I find that my clients have a variety of tastes (from art history periods, to preferred art mediums, nationality of artists, to where my clients are geographically located.) MutualArt.com provides the option of creating a personalized profile where you can pick your artistic preferences and cities and the news, articles, and events that pop-up on your main page will be relevant to your indicated preferences.

Therefore, every time I have a new client I update their preferences, city location, specific artists, and likes into my MutualArt profile so I can be aware of art events helping me become a better art consultant.
There are many art resources out there you can pick from, new technologies to help the art world function (such as ArtBase, ArtSystems) for better managing. This is simply a new addition!

Check out this video for MutualArt.com

Art Consulting Books and Reading

Art consulting is a relatively new field to start or continue a career in so it's hard to find first hand tips or advice on how to become an art consultant or adviser. However, I find that reading about other people's experiences or books can always help to get an idea of what is expected. Here's a reading list that can clarify some of the mysteries of the art world.

The Art of Buying Art, With the Help of an Adviser- The New York Times article

The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson

The Worth of Art: Pricing the Priceless by Judith Benhamou-Huet












A description of Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton






The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction House Scandal
by Christopher Mason

Shepard Fairey and Art Law Considerations

As a consultant, one always has to keep in mind how several factors affect the decision making in art. The law side of art has always been in my mind a tricky subject because in the end who does art really belong to? Is it the artist and their family, the buyer, the own who discovers an art work, or the public? Then, getting even more complicated is how does this change the meaning of art when appropriation is introduced? In business, this can lead to expensive and messy litigation. Take the Shepard Fairey and Associated Press example with 'art' for the recent President Barack Obama campaign.

The basis of this case is the Associated Press photographer Mannie Garcia took a picture of Obama during one of his speeches for the campaign and it is for AP. Then, a street artists Shepard Fairey also known for the Obey phenomenon adapted the AP photograph to create a HOPE poster of Obama that everyone learned to recognize so well.

He has been arrested at least 14 times!

More information on the variety of events surrounding Shepard Fairey can be seen on a quick search MutualArt.com

Arts Management Network

I came across a very useful and instructive website called Arts Management Network for all of those interested in arts managements, art networks, and overall a useful art information resource.

It informs about several branch fields in the arts from cultural arts backgrounds working as art management, business consultant, art professors, UNESCO, philosophy, and the list goes on. It's an initiative to combine people in different fields but all have art as a common denominator. It also informs of useful meetings or conferences on art topics.