OVERVIEW: Art in Embassies Program Gave Podestas, Jeff Koons, Rockefellers, Clintons, Marina Abramovic, Rothschilds even Alefantis access to a private shipping channel that could bypass airport security credit: @Swordfish69
Jeff Koons ‘Rabbit’ Sets Auction Record for Most Expensive Work by Living Artist
Robert E. Mnuchin, an art dealer and the father of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, made the winning bid for Mr. Koons’s 1986 “Rabbit” from an aisle seat near the front of the salesroom. He was seated near Peter Brant, the collector and private museum-owner, and Jeffrey Deitch, the dealer.
It was the ultimate prize among six works offered at Christie’s from the collection of the magazine publisher S.I. Newhouse Jr., who died in 2017. Estimated to raise at least $50 million, this sculpture, made in an edition of three and one artist’s proof, was the last example left in private hands, according to Christie’s.
The price, surpassing the $90.2 million with fees achieved, again at Christie’s, for Mr. Hockney’s 1972 painting, “Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures),” confirmed how Mr. Koons’s metal sculptures have become the ultimate billionaire trophies produced during the contemporary art boom of the 1980s and ’90s. The Hockney milestone came at the expense of Mr. Koons, the previous record-holder, whose “Balloon Dog (Orange)” sold at auction for $58.4 million in November 2013.
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Blacksmith21 ago
That is insane - American artists like O'Keefe, Klee, Pollack, etc. don't even command prices like that. This reeks of a money laundering operation.
What really throws me is Mnuchin being involved. But art is art, regardless of who or what created it. I love art, but the industry is filled with freaks and creeps.
Nice find.
ImmaLueserBaby ago
No kidding? I had to search this Koons guy and his work is nothing special. It looks like the same mediocre pop art you see in marketing campaigns. A team of graphic artists could easily churn stuff like this out.
Are_we_sure ago
You are aware that original art sells for more than copies do?
And if had to look up Koons then the entire art market, not just his stuff, but all of it, probably makes no sense. It's probably something you don't care about.
Mrs_Ogynist01 ago
You are aware that this is money laundering, right?
Are_we_sure ago
It is in absolutely no way money laundering.
Take me through this transaction and explain how it's money laundering. Do you know enough of what you speak about to do that?
truthdemon ago
R we sure , we have a village idiot in da house... Yes
Are_we_sure ago
educate me. Thrill me with your incandescent brillance.
Or are you just going to post nonsense about kidney transplants?
The_Real_Wahrheit ago
Hey asshole A_w_s, you and I both know there were postings here on Voat about how this all works. You don't buy art, you pay someone by taking the piece off their hands. The art is a receipt for a payment made. The art has no real value in and of itself.
Are_we_sure ago
Posts on Voat.....LOL. Yeah. These are absolutely infallible. Just pure sources of truth.
What the fuck does this even mean? How about hamburgers? Can you buy hamburgers or are you just paying someone to take the hamburgers off their hands?
Money launderers like real estate or gold or art BECAUSE of its value. They use it as a store of value. Claiming the art market is driven by money laundering is like claiming the real estate market is driven by money laundering. It's not, it's driven by some fundamentals and basics and much larger marcoeconomic forces. Money laundering causes some distortions, it doesn't drive the market. And in the case of this particular auction, money laundering had absolutely no influence on the 91 million price.