Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Pittsburgh's Mysterious Art Trove

April 13, 2010 by Marion Maneker

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profiles a local man who is an acknowledged leading collector of memorabilia from the television show “The Munsters” as well as a collector of cartoon drawings. But what’s got everyone in a dither is Tony Greco’s claims that he’s holding on to much more:

From the world of fine art and illustration, he also advertises pieces by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Andrew Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Frederic Remington, George Seurat, Jean Cocteau, Erte, Al Hirschfeld, John Lennon, Maurice Sendak and Keith Haring. Mr. Greco says he was friends with Mr. Haring in the mid-1970s, when the latter studied at the now-closed Ivy School of Art in Pittsburgh and Mr. Greco attended Pittsburgh Beauty Academy.

Many pieces in the second group, he says, are not museum-quality canvases with a verifiable provenance but rather lesser works or small sketches on paper that were never cataloged. Most he simply keeps in folders without intent to sell — on occasion a cat will lie on one on his desk — but some are on the market.

His source, he says, is primarily inheritance — from family members who brought them from Europe, but mostly from what he describes as a large cache of unsold inventory, left to him by a relative, from the fine art department of Kaufmann’s Department Store. An exhaustive search of records and interviews with knowledgeable sources, however, could not verify the existence of such a department.

Art Collection is Vast, but Is It the Real Deal? (Post-Gazette)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Eskimo Masks Sell at Winter Antiques Show Opening PartyEskimo Masks Sell at Winter Antiques Show Opening Party
  • Gagosian to Sell $10M Picasso Drawing Returned to Heirs of Persecuted German SellerGagosian to Sell $10M Picasso Drawing Returned to Heirs of Persecuted German Seller
  • This is a Sample Post #3This is a Sample Post #3
  • Chinese Artists Fight Rising CostsChinese Artists Fight Rising Costs
  • Here Comes KleinHere Comes Klein
  • Calder's Jewelry Stars in ShowCalder's Jewelry Stars in Show

Filed Under: Collectors

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Rare Photo Album by Dutch Street Photographer Bought at Auction by Rijksmuseum
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • David Hockney's $20m Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica
  • Christie's Announces $70m Picasso Self Portrait
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Re-discovered John Constable Painting at Sotheby's in December
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor