Look What Happened to the Art Market

"Without Wall Street many forms of books, incunables, high spots of modern literature, are already unobtainable by the average collector or even fairly well-to-do collectors. Think Great Gatsby at over a $100k...Look what happened in the art market, where paintings that used to cost thousands are now hundreds of thousands, and paintings that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars are now millions of dollars.... 

If Wall Street gets hold of books and turns them into high priced investment widgets, then look out. No one will be able to afford them any more and some of the joy of collecting will be gone."

This quote from The Man who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession came from a book dealer upon hearing that book collections were being characterized in Worth magazine as good investments. It certainly hard to imagine people like to Vogels collecting in todays market, which bounced back from the financial crisis without losing much of the gains it has made over the past 20 years.

Does the rare book market share the same future? If so, I'd better scrounge up my first editions. It's interesting that this book dealer, who would profit for this more than the average collector potentially, doesn't like the idea of pricing people out of their collecting hobby. The dealers arguably benefit more than the collectors or artists, because many collectors are priced out and because fewer contemporary artists make the cut for the higher prices being paid at auction. But on the other hand, perhaps it is a sign of the health of the art market than it can command such record high prices.

By the way, the book itself is proving quite enjoyable. It's the true story of a book thief who stole rare books and hoarded them in the modest apartment he shared with his father, not unlike the art thief of my novel who steals to create his own personal collection that he keeps at his mother's house.

For lack of better, an email chain:

Price of gas in France

 A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre. 

 

 After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van.

 However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas.

 When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, "Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings.'

 

 I had no Monet

   

to buy Degas

  

  to make the Van Gogh.

 

 See if you have De Gaulle to send this on to someone else

 

 I sent it to you because I figured I had nothing Toulouse.

Biggest Art Theft Ever??

Workers at the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris noticed a broken window before noticing the 5 missing masterpiece in what was probably a commissioned art heist this morning. Picasso's 'Dove with Green Peas' (1912), Matisse's 'Pastoral' (1906), George Braque's 'Landscape with Olive Tree' (1906), Amedeo Modogliani's 'Woman with a Fan' (1919) and Fernand Leger's 'Still Life with a Chandelier' (1922) were taken. Read more about it here.

I love a good art theft--I just finished a novel about an art theif after all--and what a loot! If it weren't for the fact that now I'll never be able to view the works myself, I would be impressed. Currently I'm just jealous.

Extra! Extra! Stolen Klee Returned

Portrait in the Garden, Paul Klee, 1930

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned a stolen Klee painting to Marlborough Gallery in Manhattan after 21 years. The painting, valued at $100,000, will now go to the insurer of the gallery.

In response to the news, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston is reported to have said, "It's not fair! They aren't even offering a reward!" The Gardner Museum retired early to bed with a case of false hope.

Holiday Movie Rec: The Maiden Heist

It is still the holidays, right? Well, if you are scrounging around for something to do with all your free time before the New Year begins, may I suggest:

Art + Crime + Christopher Walken doing comedy=
The Maiden Heist.

Obviously, I quite like the elements both separately and together. It's a fairly good film, certainly passable holiday entertainment, but you probably won't hear about it because the financing company had a bit of a hiccup and poof went the money for promotion.

The Maiden Heist stars Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, William H. Macy, and Marcia Gay Harden in a comedy centered on three museum security guards who devise a plan to steal back their favorite artworks before they are transferred to another museum. It's a labor of love, and the characters get into all the trouble you might expect and then some. It's really worth it just to see Christopher Walken in a snorkel mask at the end. Just a thought if you don't know what to do with yourselves over the break.

Ravels in Review Friday

Here we are again, two weeks into June and no sign of the rain letting up. Rain, rain, rain....

Anyhow, what did we talk about this week? Looks like we were all over the place.

• I gave a lone bad review of Summer Hours.

• No consensus was reached over a top 200 artist list by the Times. (No Surprise there).

• My idiocy became prominent at Stars Like Fleas on MoMA Monday Nights.

• Some old lady stole a notebook of Picasso drawings in Paris, or something like that.

• My formula for how to destroy a cocktail party or create change looks like art critic Jerry Saltz's Facebook page.

This constant rain is especially annoying as I was going to go get tickets to Shakespeare in the Park this morning. Now I have a conundrum. Not only if I should wait in the rain, but is the performance going to get rained out? Alas, our frailty is the cause of such concern, as Viola would say, and I think I'm go find an anarok and trudge out there.

Picasso Notebook Stolen in Paris

Via the BBC:

A sketchbook of some 32 drawings by Pablo Picasso worth about 8m euros ($11m; £6.8m) has been stolen from a museum in Paris, police have said. The theft from the Picasso Museum was discovered on Tuesday afternoon but the exact time and circumstances have yet to be determined. Initial investigations showed the sketchbook was held in an unlocked display case on the first floor.

Police sources told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the theft would probably have been committed between Monday evening and noon on Tuesday. There were no signs of a break-in an no alarms were set off. The museum was closed at the time, although there was a private viewing on Tuesday.

My first thought is: how awesome would it be if the theif were some rich, old lady with cleptomaniac impulses at the private viewing? The kind with embarrassed younger relations who had to keep returning silver spoons from dinner parties. She would just have to nod drowsily as if she were falling asleep, then quickly stick her hand in there and put the notebook in her pocketbook.

While that's a ludicrous scenario, you would think museums could spare funds for security. A lock would be an especially low-tech way to go. While I gloried at how close you could be to so many Picassos at Gagosian's new space in Chelsea, now I wonder if the small white box can provide enough security.

K

Art Reads: Straight Up or With a Twist?

I enjoy art history straight up, but I don't mind it with a twist. Lately, I've stumbled upon more than one exciting new fiction read that takes you into the art world. The fine arts get plenty of non-fiction, wether they are art historical or, like the bestselling 7 Days in the Art World, sociological. Artist's biographies are fascinating. While I might indulge in a little creative biographical fiction, Leonardo's Muse or whathaveyou, I put those books on the shelve right above the romance novels. I can admit to another weakness though, which developed out of a passion for Agatha Christie and art.

Art heist and forgery books get me every time, and it doesn't matter to me if they are based on real life. Clever, with the most interesting characters (when they aren't out and out thugs) involving passion, nerve, and wiles I love these escapades. I secretly hope that if I read enough of them I'll be able to pull off my own heist. I just finished The Art Theif's Guide to Paris, which, if not plausible, does involve a theft from the Pompidou and a forgery, making it the best of both worlds. The Forger's Spell : a True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century is on my list next.

alphainventions.com

condron.us

Great Theft

Art theft is rarely sordid, rarely violent. It is, in fact, a rarified and cultured kind of crime, one that every aesthete, in the darkest cockles of their hearts, admires. That lusty feeling that seeps into one’s bones as everyone else passes on like shadows while you stare at that thing—that marvelous thing—that seems to have sprung like Athena fully formed from your head, that feeling if why art is stolen. Sure, you might cry, but what about money? What thief could care less about the cold, hard cash a thing is worth?

Exemplia Gratis: Stephen Breitweiser. This young (not to mention, rather attractive) Frenchman lived in his mother and worked as a waiter for 10 years. He and his girlfriend often went on weekend trips to the ancient castles and house museums of Europe. Meanwhile, he was was collecting, via duplicitous mean, 16^th and 17^th century European masterpieces. In 2001, he was caught attempting to steal a bugle, one of only three like it in the world and with an estimated value of £45,000, in Switzerland. But it was only when he came back two days later to try again that he was arrested.

In his trial, he admitted to stealing 238 artworks. Why? According to Wikipedia, he said at his trial, “"I enjoy art. I love such works of art. I collected them and kept them at home." Despite the enormity of his collection, he was still able to recall every piece he stole. He interrupted the lengthy reading of his collection during his trial several times to correct various details.” What more noble motive for theft than a love of beauty. The illguarded, barely visited museums dotting Europe have their share of visitors no doubt, but who loved those pieces as he did. The desire to posses each one must have been an all-consuming passion. How often does an indivudal fully realize one’s passions? His success ought to be commended and held forth as exemplary.

Instead, Breitwieser was given a 26-month prison sentence. While that is the unfortunate outcome of gambling with society’s laws, the real loss—and no doubt the one the Stephen himself felt most—was the loss of the paintings. Over 60 paintings, including masterpieces by Brueghel, Watteau, Francois Boucher, and Corneille de Lyon were chopped up by Breitwieser's mother, Mireille Stengel, in what police believe was an effort to remove incriminating evidence against her son. And really, for such a man, is that in itself not punishment enough?

Even more laudable is the theif’s attitude toward the whole debaucle. Capitalizing on his capture and new-found notoriety, he wrote a book.