Larry Gagosian, Salvator Mundi, and the Wildensteins take over the world
A few really great things I read in the past month
I recently read some interesting articles related to subjects previously covered in this newsletter, so why not have an old-fashioned link party? I am finishing a few things in order to graduate at the end of September, so please enjoy this newsletter where other people have done all the heavy lifting.
How Larry Gagosian Reshaped the Art World by Patrick Radden Keefe
The New Yorker: Larry Gagosian is probably the most important art dealer in the world, and I’ve been thinking about profiling him for a while, but Patrick Keefe got there first. He’s a better writer than I am (plus he has way more access than I do), so I’m directing you his way. (Keefe’s writings on the Sacklers are required reading for those who are interested in the intersection of art and the opioid crisis, FYI.)
Here are a few of the subjects Keefe addresses:
Gagosian has 19 galleries and does over a billion dollars in business every year.
A lot of the names mentioned in this article are people I have written about in this newsletter such as Loic Gouzer, Tico (Alberto) Mugrabi, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Yayoi Kusama, Damien Hirst, Eli Broad, Peter Brant, and Steve Cohen.
Early in his career, it was rumored that he was living outside his means, and he received two felony forgery charges in 1969 after using someone else’s credit card.
He was accused of making lewd phone calls to various lady people when he was younger.
He has no planned successor for when he dies. (He’s in his 70s right now.)
He often represents both the buyer and seller in transactions, but because this is the art world, he doesn’t have to be transparent about possible conflicts of interest.
He often collaborates with the Mugrabi family to keep Andy Warhol prices up.
He is friends with Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, and the sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
When it was still legal, he sold a lot of work to Russian oligarchs. (In general, the higher echelons of the art market LOVE Russian oligarchs.)
This isn’t even half of what the article covers. It’s so good. Read it!
Crypto Mundi: Why Is a Controversial da Vinci Painting an NFT Darling? By Christa Terry
The Observer: This is more of a straightforward news article than the Gagosian piece and asks an interesting question: Why do people keep making NFTs featuring the Salvator Mundi? As a refresher, an NFT is just a digital pointer to something else on the interwebs. Let’s say I make 42 digital variations of the Salvator Mundi, which I can do because it is so old that it lives in the public domain. (Mohammed bin Salman may own the actual painting, but other people can use an image of that work pretty much however they want.) I create NFTs that point at my digital masterpieces, and then people can buy them and tell the world they own the thing the NFTs point at. Sure, in the abstract, NFTs are helpful if you want a record of who owns what on the web, but it’s built on the blockchain and the people in charge of that are crypto ”evangelists” (douchebags/scammers/hucksters). There is no guarantee that the thing the NFT points at will exist in 10 years, or even 6 months, and to be honest, right now NFTs are more about getting people to buy more crypto than about any kind of artistic endeavor.
If you’ve read my case study on the Salvator Mundi, you will remember that this is the most expensive painting to be sold at auction even though the Leonardo Da Vinci attribution is highly disputed. So, I guess it would make sense that folks peddling what are essentially digital souvenirs, would want to cash in on the hype. DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE. It’s my opinion that both the painting and NFTs are overvalued. Anyway, the article details some of the many Salvator Mundi NFTs, including Salvator Munki #1 - the “savior of the world” as an ape.
The Inheritance Case That Could Unravel an Art Dynasty by Rachel Corbett
The New York Times: (Shout out to Amy Gibson for bringing this to my attention!) Whooooo boy, is this article a doozy! I’ve talked a little bit about the Mugrabis and how they (legally) collude with others to maintain prices on their art, but there’s another, less well-known, family that seems to have them beat when it comes to skullduggery - the Wildensteins. According to this article, “Over 150 years, the family has amassed an art collection estimated to be worth billions by quietly buying up troves of European masterpieces that would be at home in the Louvre or the Vatican, holding their stock for generations and never revealing what they own.” The people who have brought this to light have “...persuaded prosecutors that the Wildensteins are a criminal enterprise, responsible for operating, as a prosecutor for the state once put it ‘the longest and the most sophisticated tax fraud’ in modern French history.”
And how did these guys finally hit the radar of the authorities? By being shitty to the women who married into the family. Sylvia Roth Wildenstein was married to the family patriarch, Daniel Wildenstein for FORTY YEARS when her stepsons lied to her, telling her he died with so much debt, she would be bankrupted if she did not sign control over her assets to them. How did Sylvia Wildenstein’s lawyer, Claude Dumont Beghi, get the information to prove Sylvia got swindled? From a Wildenstein ex-wife who also got the shaft! These guys helped invent the use of art as a financial asset, and they might be brought down by misogyny. (They also may have collaborated with the Nazis during WWII. EW.) Anyway, this is a batshit story about secretive, tax-evading billionaires, and you know I love a financial scandal. Okay fine, I don’t really love the crime part because it’s usually poorer folks who get taken advantage of. I just love it when people get caught! This is a must-read for those interested in the financialization of art, so if you can’t figure out a way past the paywall, reply to this newsletter and let me know. I have a certain amount of articles I can send to people for free every month as a subscriber.
I read 2 of the 3 articles you summarize here, and you are SPOT ON! You are killing it as a writer, love reading what you have to say. Congratulations in advance on your academic achievements!