Richard Johnson identifies the consignor of tonight’s Giacometti Chariot as Aleko Goulandris:
Goulandris bought the 1950 bronze of a goddess between two large wheels in 1972 for $375,000. That sum doesn’t sound like much, but Upper East Side townhouses were going for less in those days, too. […]
Goulandris — who spends winters in Gstaad, Switzerland, and summers in Porto Heli, Greece — told friends $100 million will be “too little” for all the decades he has held the sculpture.
The Goulandris family seems to share an astute eye for art. A niece of the late Basil Goulandris is suing over the disappearance of 83 paintings she claims were part of her inheritance — including works by Picasso, van Gogh, Renoir and Monet.
The family still has plenty of other paintings, however. Work has already begun in Athens on a Goulandris Museum.
