The $12.3m Neuberger Berman sale attracted a lot of attention. Here’s what the press had to say in conclusion:
“While the Lehman name certainly attracted a great deal of attention, the people who bid today participated because they knew it was good art,” said Tobias Meyer
Lindsay Pollock found a former Lehman banker who bid up a low-value Vik Muniz (was it piece she fondly gazed at over long hours in the office and wanted for sentimental reasons?) and an irony-soaked art adviser:
A former Lehman investment banker who declined to identify herself came in pursuit of a print by artist Vik Muniz, lured in part by the Lehman link. Estimated to sell for up to $8,000, Muniz’s 1998 silver gelatin print of a tree, from an edition of five, sold for $23,750, leaving the ex-Lehman banker outbid. […]
“On the day Lehman went bust, Hirst made a fortune,’’ said private New York dealer Neal Meltzer, referring to Sotheby’s Sept. 15-16, 2008 auction of work from Hirst’s studio, which grossed about $200 million. “On the day Lehman liquidates Neuberger’s collection, Hirst was out of luck.’’
Alexandra Peers watched Larry Warsh bid:
New York collector Larry Warsh, who currently has artworks loaned to, and on view at, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, was at the sale bidding. He was seeking Chinese contemporary artist Fang Lijun’s “Suimmer No. 1,” a work he said would have been priced much higher at a Hong Kong auction. Four bidders vied for the painting up from $200,000, including Warsh, who dropped out at $300,000. The winning phone bid was $310.000.
Lehman art collection takes in $12.3 mln at auction (Reuters)
Lehman $12.3 Million Art Sale Picks ‘Long Way Home’ Over Hirst (BusinessWeek)
Lehman’s Hirst Spurned by Art Buyers (NY Observer)
