Despite the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld can still negotiate a deal. For example: taking home $20 million on $13.5 million worth of sold art.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
| What: |
| Arshile Gorky ''Study For Agony 1'' Graphite, crayong and ink wash on paper 22 x 30 inches Executed in 1946-1947 |
| Where: |
| Christie's, New York Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale Nov. 12, 2008 |
| How Much: |
| Pre-Auction Estimate: $2.2 - $2.8 million Final Selling Price: $2,210,500 |
Don't feel too bad for Richard Fuld, CEO--at least until the end of this year--of once-mighty Lehman Brothers. Despite the demise of his fabled Wall Street firm, Fuld still knows how to negotiate a good deal.
Take, for example, the sale earlier this month at Christie's of 16 works of art owned by Fuld and his wife, Kathy. The collection was expected to sell for between $15 and $20 million. Instead, it barely pulled in $13.5 million. However, the Fulds still made $20 million on the sale.
Kathy Fuld, a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, assembled the collection over the past 20 years and focused on buying drawings from the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. She chose well and presumably had expert advice from MOMA curators.
But selling the group of drawings proved challenging--not only because the art markets has hit a major bump amid the economic gloom that, in some ways, was fueled by the failure of her husbands giant Wall Street firm--but also because Abstract Expressionist drawings are not an easy commodity to trade.
Drawings from this time period are esoteric and intellectually demanding. They require a connoisseur's eye. Most everyone understands works by a pop artist like Andy Warhol, but not everyone gets Arshile Gorky.
Still, the Gorky drawing was one of the few fiscal highlights of the works sold by the Fulds. Bought for $370,000 in 1996, the work sold comfortably within its estimate range for just over $2.2 million. The drawing, called ''Agony I,'' was made between 1946 and 1947 and is a study for a painting owned by MOMA.
At this period of his life, Gorky was a tortured soul, reeling from a fire that destroyed his studio and he was coping with cancer. His grief overwhelmed him one year later--he took his own life at the age of 44.
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