Every week, Artnet News brings you Wet Paint, a column of original scoop gossip. If you have any advice, email Annie Armstrong at [email protected]
SADIE COLES MAKES WAVES
The transactions that we see at art fairs and galleries – you know, the ones where an artist makes an artwork and brings it to their dealer, who sells it to a collector – are actually just the tip of the hat. the iceberg when it comes to the art market. Many works travel, Rubé Goldberg-style, through a series of guys-who-and-friends-of-friends moving from buyer to buyer, all behind closed doors (or, these days, behind screens). Everyone takes a cut along the way.
This dynamic was once again exposed in the indictment of a fallen art star Christian Rosa, who was arrested by the federal government for selling fake works allegedly by his former mentor Raymond Pettibon. As Fresh paint First revealed in January, Rosa allegedly took partially finished works from Pettibon’s studio, finished them himself, forged the older artist’s signature, and sold them as genuine items. (The scheme earned him enough money, according to the FBI, to buy a house in California.)
The indictment exposed five works Rosa peddled, which traveled from buyer to buyer before a third chain stop brought one to a New York auction house, which l ‘reported as a false potential.
Sadie Coles in 2013. (Photo by Nick Harvey / WireImage)
Now Wet Paint has learned of the chain of custody surrounding one of the sloppy Pettibons – and that involves the artist’s own dealer, Sadie coles.
In 2017, a Los AngelesA London-based collector bought what he believed to be a Pettibon wave painting (the artist’s most famous series to die for, and the only kind peddled by Rosa) as part of a negotiated deal by an artistic advisor. The seller, according to several sources, was none other than Coles, the eagle-eyed London dealer who has exhibited the artist’s work since 2000. Coles, according to sources, obtained the piece in question from another Trader, Marc Jancou. (Its location before this is unclear.)
What the advisor who brokered the deal told Wet Paint about the job matches what has been reported about Rosa’s process creating the forged waves. “Back then there were a lot of parties and a lot of junkies and things were disappearing from the studio,” the advisor said. “I think a half-finished wave is gone and someone ‘finished’ it.”
Raymond Pettibon, Untitled (“I keep pouring…”) (1997); Untitled (“Drop in…”) (2011); Untitled (“Lease or bailout…”) (2012); Untitled (“If there is a line…”) (2016); Untitled (“It was the moment…”) (2013). Photo courtesy of the United States Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York.
The LA buyer – who could not be reached for comment – did not find the Pettibon to be legitimate until he tried to hand it over to Sotheby’s In the spring of 2020. Upset, the buyer returned to Coles and threatened to sue, leading them to settle the price of the work out of court, according to a source. The wave is now apparently in the custody of the federal government.
Coles did not respond to a detailed request for comment, nor did Jancou. Sotheby’s declined to comment.
It all reminds me of how my mom raised me to literally wash my hands after handling money and coins because of the number of hands they go through in a day. May it remind you to wash your hands after handling art, too. God knows where he’s been.
BILLIE EILISH, THE ART COLLECTOR?
Anna Park, Intermission (2021). Courtesy of Half Gallery.
Since the meteoric rise of the pop star, Billie Eilish has an eye for the fine art. She collaborated with Takashi Murakami extensively, she worked with Klaus Biesenbach stage a performance art work at MOCA Los Angeles, and she is known to appear from time to time in a fundraising museum. Now he takes his art patronage a step further by building a thriving art collection.
His first acquisition (to our knowledge): A charcoal drawing of a rising star Anna Park. The work, Intermission (2021), which mixes flowers, teacups and portraits, was among the 25-year-old artist’s sold-out debut at new York‘s Half Gallery this spring. (It takes a prodigy to know a prodigy.) In the end, Eilish will lend the work to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it will be the subject of a group exhibition in 2022. The price of the work is not confirmed, but it is firmly in the five figures.
Eilish let the cat out of the bag when she posted a photo of herself outside work to tease the release of her first scent. Half Gallery‘s Invoice credentials quickly shared the post. “It’s a super exciting time for Anna Park,” Powers said. Fresh paint. “I am so proud of her.”
Eilish, 19, has an estimated net worth of $ 30 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, a website which I think is pretty much all made up by someone in their basement, but which offers the only one. stage to which I have access at the moment. . With that kind of money, plus the good manners and common sense to loan her art to a museum, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Eilish emerge as an influential collector for too long.
The South Korean park, based in Brooklyn, had a banner year, with two sold-out solo exhibitions: one with Half Gallery and another in Blum & Poe in Tokyo, where his works were sold between $ 40,000 and $ 58,000.
Personally, I would love to see Eilish collect more work by emerging female artists, and someday visit the esteemed Billie Eilish Foundation. Until then, my ear will be on the lookout for other jobs the star might be grabbing.
POINT
Lucien Smith. Photo: Paul Bruinooge / Patrick McMullan
Richard kern, The ion pack, critic Natasha Stagg, and gallery owner Alyssa davis at the exit of Sex magazinethe new number of Mast books *** Wristwatch expert, Dime founder and former Sotheby’s employee Brynn wallner give a talk to Phillips *** Photographer Farah Al Qasimi sign his new book Hello future for other artists Rose Salane and Sara cwynar To Company Gallery ”s new downtown location *** Derek Fordjour and Devin B. Johnson go out for an evening at Metropolitan Opera To Lincoln Center *** Lucien Smith, artist and new director of Lobe‘s Cultural innovation laboratory, to eat outside To Saint Ambrose downtown ***
WE HEAR…
Andréa Ormeño-Delph. Photo: Ben Lee Ritchie Handler
Nicodimthe new New York site has been named Andréa Ormeño-Delphas director, who joins from Mitchell-Innes & Nash … Alex Rojas has been chosen as the new director for Anat Ebgi after the departure of Various small fires last month … Richard prince now sells marijuana seeds as part of his cannabis business, Katz + Dogg … the New York Academy of the Arts will honor 87 years Peter Saul at his fall Artists for artists gala at Sotheby’s, with KAWS acting as president for the evening … Daniel arnold will publish his first monograph through the Safdie Brothers‘ movie studio Elara Pictures (Apparently Succession actor Nicolas braun is pretty excited, according to her Instagram)
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