Art Basel Miami is in Miami because of collectors like Rosa de la Cruz. Along with a dozen other obsessive collectors, de la Cruz made Miami more than outpost of the art world. They turned it into a Mecca for the far-flung faithful of Contemporary art.

ArtInfo has an interview with her where she talks about her planned space that will be about art first and foremost:

“there are too many parties. Lately art has become a purely social scene. I’ve met people at parties who are buying art, and they don’t know what they are buying. [ . . . ]

I think there are too many shows. We’ve been running a marathon for the past few years. With everything that’s happening in the world right now, we need to slow down and spend more time looking at works. So there will be the collection, and that’s it. And a little library. I want people to say, “I have nothing to do today. You know what? I’m dying to look at a painting.”

‘That’s too much work,’ the director says.

Watch this quick interview with Oliver Stone in Hong Kong before the sale of his five paintings of Contemporary Chinese art. In it, Stone mentions that there’s real demand from the Chinese for the paintings, so he’s passing them along (at a profit.) He also talks about his interest in painting and the importance of these paintings in China’s cultural history.

The interviewer is someone named Thomas Crampton who is lives in Hong Kong and has a blog here.

The Miami Herald profiles the unsung heroes of the Art Basel Miami, the ordinary but passionate collectors. The story features some, like Alicia Apfel, who began collecting because of the fair’s presence in Miami:

”I remember when you had to leave Miami to see great art,” says Apfel, 44, a lawyer whose 1938 three-bedroom is filled with vintage touches and, for the last few years, more and more artworks to keep her and The Little Red Girl company. “All of a sudden, we get Basel, and we have everything from everywhere coming to Miami once a year.”

In recent years, many young and not so young locals who lack deep pockets have caught the art-collecting bug. They will never compete with big-league South Florida collectors such as the Rubell family, Norman Braman, Martin Margulies or Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz and must make sacrifices to buy even at the entry price of $1,000 to $5,000. But they are equally committed to the hunt.

For Starry-Eyed Collectors, A Passion to Have and to Hold (Miami Herald)

The New York Times picks up on a story from the Art Newspaper about the Gelman collection amassed by Jacques Gelman and his wife, Natasha:

At the time of her death the collection consisted of 95 pieces, including two well-known 1943 works by Kahlo, “Self-Portrait as a Tehuana (Diego on My Mind)” and “Self-Portrait With Monkeys,” and Rivera’s 1941 “Calla Lily Vendor.” The largest number of works are by the couple’s close friend Gunther Gerzso, an abstract painter whose reputation has grown over the last decade.

In 1993 Mrs. Gelman wrote a Mexican will that bequeathed the Mexican collection to Robert R. Littman, an American curator who was a close adviser and friend in the last years of her life. He established the Vergel Foundation to oversee the collection, which traveled to museums around the world.

(The rest of the frustrating story of greed vs. art after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Indian Tycoons Lose Wealth But Cling to Luxuries

That’s the International Herald Tribune’s take which ran this story on the decline of India’s substantial class of millionaires but their thirst for luxuries:

A falling stock market, a weak rupee and slowing economic growth have shaved about 60 percent off the wealth of the 40 richest people in the nation, Forbes said in its annual compilation earlier this month, with their net worth plunging to $139 billion from $351 billion a year ago. [ . . . ]

India had 123,000 millionaires in 2007 and showed the fastest pace of expansion, a Merrill Lynch/Capgemini report said. But a stock market rout has meant local investors have “notionally lost almost a year’s GDP,” Credit Suisse said in a recent report titled “Wealth destruction aftermath.” [ . . . ]

But while the notional value of their wealth has taken a hit, Indian billionaires still have plenty of loose change for luxury cars, art and wines. Sales of cars priced at more than 2 million rupees have remained strong, bucking the slump in overall Indian car sales. [ . . . ] Read the rest of this entry »

. . . Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Taste?

Colin Gleadell reports the speculation that Andrew Lloyd Weber bought the Victorian paintings sale £1-million prize work, “No Walk Today,” owned by Sir David Scott.

Scott purchased the painting in 1926 for 14 guineas. The buyer is thought to have been Andrew Lloyd Webber, bidding through a dealer who stood at the back of the crowded room and left immediately afterwards.

The Los Angeles Times profiles Don and Mera Rubell as their Haring show goes up at the Palm Springs Art Museum. According to the Times, this may be more than a one-shot deal:

The partnership is in its infancy, and no one would go on the record about what’s next. But here’s what Steven Nash, executive director of the museum, had to say: “We hope to have an ongoing tradition of excellence and great art brought from Miami.” [ . . . ]

The bicoastal association began serendipitously about a year and a half ago, Nash said, when he met Mark Coetzee, director of the Rubell Family Collection, who was visiting the desert community. Nash, who had recently taken charge of the Palm Springs museum and was overseeing its refurbishment, was open to new ideas. One conversation with Coetzee led to another until a plan shaped up.

The relationship was “evolutionary,” Don Rubell said. “But when it occurred, it felt so good. It’s like a marriage. You don’t want to give your children to a home where they are not appreciated. And the home wants to feel that it is receiving something very worthwhile.”

Of course, the best parts of the profile are the Rubells. Here’s Mera:

“To do what we do, we have to go everywhere, with rolling suitcases that we never check and wash-and-wear clothes, usually black,” she said. “Here’s our schedule for about two months: Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, London, Paris, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and here, then New York again and Abu Dhabi. We need to see what’s going on in the world.” [ . . . ]

As for deciding what to acquire, Mera offered this: “We look for artists who have something to say that hasn’t been said before. The next piece we buy by an artist is always going to be a piece that has something to say beyond what the artist said before.”

About half the time, the family members agree quickly. Otherwise, “we fight like dogs,” she said. “Democracy is very nasty, but when it works, it brings together something very powerful.”

For Collectors Don and Mera Rubell, a Bond with Palm Springs (Los Angeles Times)

Page Six reports that the Core Club, Aby Rosen’s art-filled hang-out for the private capital set, is struggling. Members seem less concerned with getting their membership fees returned than having a lein on some of the art stored there:

Lyor Cohen, the Warner Music Group honcho, joked, “All I want is the Jean-Michel Basquiat,” referring to one of valuable artworks decorating the club’s walls.

Core of the Problem: No Dough (NY Post)

At a panel discussion led by Lindsay Pollock a few months ago, Roland Augustine, the president of the ADAA, casually described the majority of contemporary art buyers as “speculators.” Put aside the strangeness of a trade association head branding the bulk of his industry’s customers with a perjorative.

Focus on the issue of speculation. Can the majority of art buyers in 2007 and 2008 really have been speculators? Who are these people and can no one identify a single one of these speculators?

The subject comes to mind again after last week’s report on the Phillips de Pury sale contained this quote from an art advisor [emphasis ours]:

Grotjahn’s colorful early painting, with a low estimate of $400,000, didn’t find a buyer. Another work — a fiery orange butterfly painting — fetched $458,500 against the estimate range of $450,000 to $650,000.

In 2003, paintings by the Los Angeles-based artist cost around $20,000, said his New York dealer Anton Kern. In May, one of his canvases fetched $1.2 million at Phillips in New York, setting an auction record for the artist.

“You can’t have increases like that unless people are buying for investment purposes or everyone is leveraged,’‘ said Cristina Delgado, a New York art adviser, before the auction. “We need to come down to prices in the art market before everyone began leveraging, probably another 30 to 40 percent.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Financial Times takes a look at the burgeoning art storage business. Alison Gregor turns that into a fascinating tour of the collector’s side of the art boom–even as it sets up for a lengthy hibernation. Where will all of the art go in a recession? Storage or will the increasing circulation of art continue?

A burgeoning fine art market saw sales surpass $40bn in 2007, which was a catalyst for the growth of a fine-art storage and logistics industry. Even though sales might slow with the financial crisis, and indeed, art collectors will be watching forthcoming auctions with trepidation, the fine art being bought and sold – and which does not make it into museums, galleries, corporate offices or homes – must be stored somewhere. This is a task that involves a high degree of specialisation.

Besides cataloguing, packaging, shipping and installing the art works, fine art storage facilities house them for long periods in crates inside vaults controlled for such factors as temperature, humidity and light. The warehouses also have viewing rooms where pieces can be bought and sold, photographed, assessed or repaired. [ . . . ]

There are about 100 to 125 top-notch fine art warehouses worldwide, according to Bob Crozier, founder and president of Crozier Fine Arts, along with dozens of smaller, regional facilities in various countries. [ . . . ]

Sigrid Thorne, chief executive of Fortress Corporation, which has fine art warehouses in New York, Boston and Miami, said private collectors are the fastest growing segment of her business.

“Values in the modern art market have gone up 20 per cent a year for the last six years,” she said, though that growth may lag behind this year. “That’s very attractive. And the pieces are so large, most people cannot install them in their homes. They have to put them in storage.” Once there, the works are often shipped in and out by serious collectors to museums and galleries for shows.

“People loan their art work out for various museum shows throughout the world, so maybe it comes out of their storage for a while, and then maybe it goes into their homes,” said Andrea Hazen, an art adviser with Hazen Partners Art Advisory. [ . . . ]

“One of the ways this business has really changed is that it’s really no longer about storage,” he said. “It’s about private banking. We know who’s shipping what, who’s buying what, and we become sort of the keepers of secrets.”

With the number of loans from Transcon’s private collections soaring, what was once “slam it into a case and send it” is no longer, Mr Blodget said. Countless condition reports are done at all stages of the shipment for insurance purposes.

John Mullane, president of Transcon, said insurance companies have shown growing interest in fine art storage facilities as the values in the fine art world increase exponentially. “We had a collector who bought a piece about two years ago for about $600,000, and [five or six] months ago, it was sold for $12m,” he said. While appreciation rates of 1,900 per cent over a short period may no longer be seen in the market, insurers are nonetheless paying attention.

Precious works housed in armour (Financial Times)