Well, Yes and No.
According to Bloomberg this morning, Steven Cohen has considered selling a group of works through several dealers in order to buy something else. The financial seize up has caused him to reconsider both sides of the $100 million trade, according to some very good reporting by Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff.
More recently, he snagged two pieces by Jeff Koons, including the shiny 9-foot-tall “Hanging Heart (Violet/Gold)” sculpture, according to people familiar with the transaction. Another heart from the same series fetched $23.6 million at Sotheby’s in 2007.
Last year, Cohen consigned at least eight paintings to New York dealers to sell, among them works by Willem de Kooning, Ed Ruscha and Pablo Picasso. He hoped to raise money for a major purchase that — as financial markets tumbled — he ultimately decided not to make, according to sources close to Cohen. They declined to disclose his target. [ . . . ] Last summer, as Cohen prepared to make the mysterious major purchase, he approached Sotheby’s about selling a group of artworks in the November auctions — including a work by Koons and a painting by Maurice de Vlaminck — valued at around $100 million, according to dealers and auction-house sources. The group was ultimately not put up for sale. The works he withdrew from sale at private galleries in Manhattan included Picasso’s “Homme a la Pipe,” insured for $20 million, and currently on view at Gagosian Gallery.
SAC’s Cohen Shows Off $137 Million ‘Woman’ at Sotheby’s Exhibit (Bloomberg)
