Pollock Pierces Peak Price
Big artist, big painting, big bucks. Allegedly, Hollywood entertainment mogul David Geffen has sold a 4 x 8 foot drip painting by Jackson Pollock for the record-breaking price of $140 million. The previous “highest price ever paid” record was set back in June when Ronald S. Lauder purchased Gustav Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” for a staggering $135 million.
Ever since Lauder set the bar crazy high, various big spenders seem eager to outgun him and earn bragging rights to the “most expensive painting ever” sale. If Steve Wynn hadn’t poked his elbow through the canvas of his dreamy Picasso, Steve “how conspicuously can I consume today” Cohen was reportedly ready to scoop it up for the sum of $139 million … but Geffen seems to have broken even that would-be record. Funny how that Klimt sale seems to be all of a sudden driving so many other artists’ valuations to record levels.
Because, let’s be real: $140 million sure isn’t fair market value. Pollock’s auction record, set in 1994, was $11 million. Last summer Cohen reportedly coughed up $52 million for another drippy masterwork. Why so much more? Because he can, boys and girls. Because he can. I read recently that he was going to be building a museum in Greenwich, Ct., for his treasures. Do you think he’ll put the prices paid on the wall labels?
Geffen quietly built his own museum-quality collection of New York School artists, including masterpieces by Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Pollock’s “No. 5, 1948,” which is considered a classic example. The new owner was originally rumored to be Mexican financier David Martinez, with art world wags speculating that he would showcase it on the walls of his new $54 million apartment in the Time Warner Center. Martinez later denied being the buyer. The deal was brokered by Tobias Meyer of Sotheby’s, who remained mum about the sale and its record price tag.–D.L.
April 4th, 2007 18:11
[…] One interesting thing to watch: While public Ab Ex price records currently hover between $20 million and $30 million (for Rothko, de Kooning, Clyfford Still and David Smith), a few private sales have topped $100 million in the last six months: namely a Jackson Pollock and a de Kooning that hedge fund guru Steven Cohen cherry-picked out of David Geffen’s splendiferous collection. I’m curious whether any other big dogs will rise to that aberrational level while trying to prove that they can play in Stevie’s sandbox. Or will the price stay closer to $50 million? After all, a Rockefeller provenance trumps a Geffen provenance…. […]