John R. Stoebner, the court-appointed Chapter 7 Trustee in the PBE Corporation bankruptcy proceeding that involves the Polaroid Collection, anounced on January 3, 2010 that he has found buyers for most of the collection. This opens the way for a poential auction for the several remaining components of the Polaroid Collection, with competitive bids due no later that 5 p.m. CST on January 20, 2011 — 10 days hence. That leaves a very brief window of opportunity for any institution or other potential purchaser to submit an offer. […]
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I have none of the specialist skills necessary to contribute usefully to this investigation, nor any preferred outcome here. So I concern myself with the quality of the discourse from the two camps — and, for my money, Team Norsigian has so far proved itself measured, judicious, and open-handed, as opposed to the frothing apoplectic rage and deceitful doubletalk coming from the Adams herd. […] At the moment it seems that the attempt to find a permanent home for the remainder of the collection is sincere. One hopes that the success of the auction does not allow greed to start to creep into the thinking of the creditors, or Polaroid’s bankruptcy trustee, John Stoebner. Hopefully they will not be asking for too much in return. There is little chance that another sale of remaining works would generate a fraction of the excitement or prices that this sale did. Not only has the cream of the crop been removed, but as has been shown with numerous second sales of supposedly rare material — like the second de Prangey sale of early daguerreotypes — these sales more often than not fall flat and never live up to expectations. […] As some of the Adams murals were hung in corridors and the cafeteria, some had various marks (one could see small gouges on at least a couple of the murals in Sotheby’s preview) and Lyons remembers doing surface cleaning to remove food from some. But perhaps the most egregious damage was done when cutouts were made in some to make room for electric outlet boxes! At least Polaroid saved the cutout pieces and Lyons was able to replace them. I don’t know if any of those murals were among the ones offered in the sale, but it’s possible. […] |
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Polaroid Collection: Update 23
I find myself wondering if the malevolent ghost of J. P. Morgan himself, still furious with Edward Steichen for making that iconic 1903 portrait, lurked around JPMorgan Chase & Co. headquarters while this deal went down in order to exact revenge on the entire medium through which his murderous inner child had been evoked for all to see. […]