The New York Times’s auction reporter, Carol Vogel, is shocked to learn that dealer gossip isn’t always as well informed as it seems. The spectacular sale of Gerhard Richter paintings at Sotheby’s last November generated a lot of speculation from Vogel’s sources that Bernard Arnault was the buyer. Now, Vogel feels the need to inform the world that her sources are wrong:

It turns out, however, that Mr. Arnault did not buy the Richter. Lily Safra did. The widow of the banker Edmond J. Safra, she is known for her extravagant $104.3 million purchase of Giacometti’s monumental sculpture “Walking Man I” at Sotheby’s in London two years ago. The morning after Mrs. Safra bought the Richter abstract, she telephoned James S. Snyder, the director of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. “She said she had fallen in love with the painting and decided to give it to the museum in memory of her husband,” Mr. Snyder said. “It was a complete surprise.”

Surprise! Israel Museum Is Receiving a Richter (Inside Art/New York Times)