The New York Times‘s Randy Kennedy gives the Robins-Zwirner suit the once-over with little new to add to the seemingly endless debate about collectors vs. profiteers (at least we’re getting a change of nomenclature from the rather tired “speculators.”)

“By bringing suit,” the gallery’s lawyers argue, “the wealthy Robins has literally made a federal case of not being able to buy what he wants, when he wants.”

As for the supposed blacklist, the lawyers added, as if addressing a purely philosophical problem, “If such a list exists, and if Robins is on it, Zwirner did not put him there and cannot take him off.”

[…] Even serious collectors who are generally regarded more as keepers than as sellers complain that, in recent years, several dealers — and highly involved artists like Ms. Dumas — have gone overboard in their protectiveness and desire to control an artwork’s destiny after it is sold.Continue Reading