The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Lane fingers the Mugrabi family as the buyers of Peter Brant’s Orange Balloon Dog sculpture by Jeff Koons that sold in November for a record price. The work joins four others that he owns, according to a conversation Lane had with the collector and market maker, “and is seeking to buy more while keeping the market growing but stable”:
Demand for Koons has grown in the past decade, weathering the financial crisis of 2009 but peaking in 2011. In that year, 91% of Koons’s works on auction were sold, with an average sale price of $1.6 million, safely above the average estimate, according to Artnet data. Last year, 78% of Koons’s works offered were sold.
Now, support from Mr. Mugrabi could boost demand.
Mr. Mugrabi has said he didn’t initially care for Koons’s art. But he “unexplainably fell in love” with the shiny orange puppy when he visited the house of its former owner, prominent art collector Peter Brant, Mr. Mugrabi said.
“You can’t ask me why I love this lady or that lady, and you can’t ask me why I love the dog or another piece of art. I just do,” he said.
