Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

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

The Foundation Selling to Shore Up Its Finances

April 6, 2017 by Marion Maneker

Screen Shot 2017-04-06 at 10.39.57 AM

It’s a strange way to promote auction highlights but Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina has a story about the sale of 16 works of art from the Homeland Foundation which was established by the Stillman family to support the house and gardens of Wethersfied, the family’s country estate. The estate was the pride of banking heir James Stillman:

He spent more than two decades creating gardens evoking those in 17th century Italy. A room with a vaulted ceiling and frescoes once displayed his most prized artwork, “Portrait of a Halberdier,” a painting by Pontormo that sold at auction to the Getty Museum for $35 million shortly after his death in 1989.

But by the early 2000s, the Wethersfield fortune began to fade. The foundation’s expenses and grant outlays exceeded revenues for 14 straight years, filings show. Trustees diverted millions of dollars to personal causes, including alma maters and children’s schools, according to admissions they made in connection with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s probe.

New York Banking Royalty’s Heirs Are Unloading Art to Save the Family Estate

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Antiquities Fever Comes to BrittanyAntiquities Fever Comes to Brittany
  • Is It Bizarre When Ruprecht Says, ‘an Art Fund Principal Business Has Never Been More Exciting’?Is It Bizarre When Ruprecht Says, ‘an Art Fund Principal Business Has Never Been More Exciting’?
  • FBI Says The’ve Had Confirmed Sightings of  Stolen Gardner Museum WorksFBI Says The’ve Had Confirmed Sightings of Stolen Gardner Museum Works
  • What's at Art BaselWhat's at Art Basel
  • Christie’s London Old Masters Evening = £6.4m ($9.7m)Christie’s London Old Masters Evening = £6.4m ($9.7m)
  • Watercolors AfireWatercolors Afire

Filed Under: General

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
  • Christie's Announces $70m Picasso Self Portrait
  • David Hockney's $20m Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Phillips Includes $2.5m Norman Rockwell Painting in November Evening Sale
  • About Us/ Contact
  • 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