Walk into CHAPS on the Downtown Mall and ask Tony the owner, “What’s good today?” He steers you toward the grilled-cheese; do you take him to court for not recusing himself from recommendation of his own products? At Crutchfield a sales-clerk tells you Bose are better speakers than Sony, do you assume this advising comes from an impartial Consumer Reports writer, or from a company employee? In the consignment shop, would you imagine the bric-a-brac is sold without a percentage going to the store itself?
Our local gentil-bonhomme gazillionaire, hotelier, and haircut-model, as reported, is contesting that a self-identified executive employee of an auction-house, which stands to benefit in commission from every item there sold, when asked for an opinion about the purchase of a painting (one of 64 similar works, but with five extra sheep), recommended that purchase. Unconfirmed, but he might also have suggested to try the cheese-danish at the breakfast-bar.
While one oozes with sympathy for those who know evidently little about art or its market who toss millions at mundane and mediocre primitive works, it defies credulity that having been stung by ill-informed profligacy, the buyer (beware) would intemperately scamper to bring the nation’s oldest and most respected arts and rarities-dealer to judicial account.
Sotheby’s, reported in the LA Times as alleging HM is somewhat cash-strapped, must know whereof it speaks? If I walk in and win on a bid of 9 million for a highway-motel hanging of some barnyard animals, Sotheby’s must know IN ADVANCE that I have 9 million to spend? The financial difficulties alleged by Sotheby’s and “adamantly denied in multiple statements” by HM, should be easy enough to verify?
One wonders:
Will our Grand Hotel be stalled in construction, wind up a turkey-pen or paint-ball playground?
Should we ask to see the cash up-front before we accept HM’s bid for Cvillain, up for sale?
Could we take up a collection for a haircut, so he at least looks nice for the judge?
Related posts:
Tagged as: bad haircuts, dogs-playing-poker, halsey minor, high-art/low-brow, local laffable bazillionaires
Thanks for linking the LA Times article, as otherwise I would have had absolutely no fucking idea what the hell you were talking about.
I was going to insist that this be posted on MUSE but nevermind. I don’t want to spring otterdung on those poor souls.
@2
I thought about it, Shen, but really want/wish CvilleMuse would be all LOCAL art(ist)(s). Also there’s more snark on Cvillain, which this story demands in comment, and we’ve already established a pattern of celebrating HM (with good reason as I asserted elsewhere—we WANT for him to be a local hero and FEEL like a local hero. He stands to do a helluva lot of GOOD in this town, and should be celebrated if not ALWAYS fawned-over. And “any publicity is good publicity” certainly applies.
Have to say though that Cvillain will print ANYTHING, won’t they?
I really thought this would be suppressed.
Even if the story itself is hilarious, my take on it is comically obscene, if only unintentionally offensive.
i published it because it was so hard to read
you are awesome to do so. the difficult text makes it less of a threat to HM or his Sampson/Delilah coiffure. i suspect few comments on this one…Cvillains tend not to join me in amusement about HM… there are free drinks from him at-stake.
any guesses as to why the suit was brought in California instead of NYC,
assuming Sotheby’s and the sale were in NYC?
Stop dipping Halseys braids in the ink well Otter… it is really starting to look like a case of unrequited love to me…
i am a mere gnat in his pomade.
i’m shocked you yourself wouldn’t be more irreverent–
just pretend he’s Backup Planet and give us some of your signature bile and mockery?
Please, love?
I just found a video of otterdung talking, and he talks just like he writes. AMAZING!!!
No, this is the actual video of otterdung:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5crsfe-NUw
/zip zop boobity bop!
@5 California’s consumer protection laws are the strongest in the nation and HM’s lawyers probably figured that the best avenue to success.
@10
makes sense. also, i think HM is a hardcore republican (donations to the R party pretty substantial it seems, VA and elsewhere, in spite i think of having also hosted a big fundraising dinner for clinton and giving money to Kerry campaign), so maybe he has an ‘in’ with Gov. Arnold S and conservative judges out there? Didn’t realize you could choose any-old state, though. i thought he sold his 20mil home in BelAir to buy Carter’s Grove. Alleged crime in NYC, residence in VA (whence gubernatorial possible-run). Maybe that’s why it had to be class-action instead of solo.
/baffled nobody find this story hilarious and not even Floozy will touch it.
/we’ll let it die, Thor. thanks for humoring me.
It’s not hilarious, it raises actual issues concerning auction house practice. Concealing the fact that the painting was being sold to pay off a debt so that more money would be bid on it is dishonest.
@12
Really? The article(s) firmly assert that it was made clear to HM that because the painting was being sold to pay off a debt, he could get it for “a fire-sale price”, i.e., he evidently planned to get the painting for next-to-nothing of its real market value because it was sold as a sortof ‘foreclosure’.
That OTHER bidders went along and drove the price up to the 9.6 million would seem to suggest that plenty of other people wanted the painting, and were up to 9.559999 million dollars willing to own it for that price. One assumes that ANY bidder is allowed to stop bidding at any time if he/she thinks the price is too high????? But maybe that’s not how auctions work?
What’s hilarious is that an astute and successful businessman wouldn’t know this stuff or find someone who did, wouldn’t stop bidding before he got to a point where he was discommoded by the price, and then would be pissed-off afterwards.
Don’t you have a local friend who paints, here in town, Shen? Can you imagine how much it would help your friend if 1/100th, 1/1000th, 1/10,000th of that money went to Piedmont Council for the Arts or McGuffey Art Center or any of a dozen other local art-supporting charities?
Peaceable Kingdom #1—asking 6 to 8 million, sold for 9.6 million:
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159465968
Peaceable Kingdom #2—asking 2 to 3 mil, sold for 1.3 million
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159481414
No, it says he was kept in the dark about the painting’s status.
From S catalogue:
Absentee Bids (also known as Written/Commission/Order Bids)
If you are unable to attend the auction in person, we will be happy to execute written bids on your behalf. … you may use to indicate the item upon which you wish to bid AND THE MAXIMUM BID AMOUNT YOU ARE WILLING TO MAKE. … When we execute an absentee bid on your behalf, the lot will always be bought for the lowest increment that exceeds all competing bids and which meets or exceeds the reserve price.
That’s irrelevant.
@17
oooo! i never like to argue with you, because you tend to kick my ass.
which part is irrelevant?—the part about not offering for something more than you want to pay, or the part about other people wanting to pay as much as he did for it or the part about him wanting to have got it for less than market value (market value being set by what the market is willing to pay for the thing) if only he’d known to underbid (and then perhaps someone else would have got it for 9.5 not 9.6 million) because some poor guy might have had to sell it for less because he was in debt?
See @12 for my response.
Shen is right.. it’s pretty shady, and if you’re supposed to be the #1 legit auction house, you don’t do stuff like that. It may be legal — doesn’t mean it’s right.
i dunno it’s actually fair to demand to know the seller’s financial status before you buy something from him? If you wanted to sell me your car, could i demand to know how much you had in your checking account so i could low-ball you on the price i offer?
I guess knowledge is power—someone could’ve done a FOIA for the seller’s 2007 tax-returns, for example.
Still, whatever the bid may have STARTED at, even had the opening bid been only ten bucks, there were clearly OTHER bidders willing to pay 9.5 million for the thing. AS was HM if as in @16 he set his maximum bid to be in excess of 9.6 million. The bidding opened at 6 million, if the painting wasn’t worth that much to someone, it would not have sold at all.
what we seem to be suggesting is to fuck the artist by getting her art as cheap as possible because we know artists are starving and unemployed. or, in this case, devalue the artist’s work by selling it for less than fair-market value, thereby making that artist’s other works less valuable and that artist less significant.
@21 Nobody’s saying that at actually.
I guess when a young couple can’t pay their mortgage, and a developer knows that they’re having trouble, the developer knows he can screw the couple by offering next-to-nothing for the house, then himself turn around and sell it for the actual market price. so you’re right–business is cut-throat.
why is trying to screw the seller better than trying to screw the buyer (if it WERE the case) ?
/it will be fun to see what the courts say, but i have supreme confidence that Sotheby’s will lose.
/odd that you-all are so dead-set against art selling for what it’s worth, ie, what people will pay for it.
Um, once again, not the point. And don’t make us go into how ridiculous some of the prices for art are. The point is they didn’t disclose facts about a piece that could have been less benefical for their pocketbook. Give it up already.
the market sets the price, however obscene. i admire kyle for his willingness to take a loss on SpicyBear by announcing he can’t afford to run it, but i don’t recommend that in commercial dealings. abysmal art, by abysmal artists who can’t afford a coffee, sell at mudhouse regularly for 600 to 1000 bucks. Steve Keene used to sell his paintings for 5 bucks each (and still does).
If you sell your Ferragamo boots on e-bay and set a RESERVE, you shouldn’t also have to declare that you can’t pay your electric bill.
i’m looking on Sotheby’s website for where it says it’s required to disclose the financial well-being of the seller. If HM could determine this after the auction, why couldn’t he do so BEFORE the auction? Sotheby’s has a historical and very stiff Privacy Policy. They also say this, which means there was always the option not to bid if the opening price was too high for whatever reason:
Reserve price
The reserve is the confidential minimum selling price to which a consignor (you) and Sotheby’s agree before the sale – your property’s “floor” price, below which no bid will be accepted. If bidding on your item fails to reach the reserve, we will not sell the piece and will advise you of your options. It is important to consider the reserve price in light of the fact that Sotheby’s will assess fees and handling costs for unsold lots.
No one is asking for the financial well being of the seller. What they want to know is if Sotheby’s has an ownership stake in selling the piece.
For Sotheby’s to hide it might be legal, but it’s kinda shady, especially given their reputation.
Sotheby’s has an ownership stake in every piece that it sells—it takes massive fees in the form of:
1) valuation
2) auctioning fee
3) commission on sale
4) processing of sale
lawsuit is based on Sotheby’s not disclosing that the guy was in debt to Sotheby’s.
guy chose to dump this painting AT Sotheby’s—he could’ve sold his condo in Manhattan instead.
Yeah, but in this casse it was different than noraml ownership stakes and they knew it would get more money if it wasn’t disclosed as a debt piece. Chad, let’s just drop it so OD will stop blathering on.
as above, i have ZERO doubt that the courts will rule against Sotheby’s—only reason it’s worth talking about this at all is to toss around some idea of why they shouldn’t. No MBAs or lawyers on here today… Free-market interference through biased judicial consumer protection is the new intrusive paternalism, same as government bailing out all those folks who took flexible-rate mortgages and lost out.
you’ve all gone soft.
delete the post, and let it, as you say, drop.
But if a reserve was set and bidding was free and open, what difference does it make if the guy was in debt? See e-bay example above. It’s not like anyone forced buyers to bid that high. The most EVER paid for a Hicks work was 3.4 million. Why would anyone pay 9.6, knowing that?
/this seems more about defending HM than about the sale, price, or art.
that’s ok.
HM is a brilliant businessman as i’ve said elsewhere, and a HUGE asset to this community—
he’s also super-cool for answering some of the comments on this website, and with winning charm and snark.
It’s a shame he got screwed on this purchase, but he’ll get damages worth ten times what he’s refused to pay for the painting, so it’s win-win for him. He’ll probably get to keep the painting too, which will be cool, because NOW its valuation is 9.6 million because that’s what it sold for, so if he donates it to a museum, he’ll STILL get 9.6 in tax write-off. So win again.
/i’ll be over on the FFA making dick-jokes.
@6…..
Otterd+HM+Darren H= ♥
/did the math.
@28 that’s the smartest thing said in this thread so far.
the only funny thing said in this thread so far,
and evidence that at least ONE cvillain can be snarky on ANY topic,
is where floozy said not to dip HALSEY’S BRAIDS in the ink-well.
/but you’re cool caroline!
/darren hoyt would eat HM for breakfast.
@1 was pretty funny!
@comments throughout
gawrsh.
i never say anything unkind to anyone on this website,
but i wish i could bring myself to do it, just once,
as a general and not a specific or ad hominem remark.