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. […]
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At 5 p.m. CST this afternoon, bidding closed on three separate chunks of the now-dismembered Polaroid Collection. For all intents and purposes, the dispersal of this unique, irreplaceable collection will have run its course by the end of this month. The first phase of the ill-fated Collection’s distribution in parts took place last June, through […] I’ll put my dollar on 20 Exchange Place turning the Polaroid Collection into trophy lobby decor, using it to accessorize its newly gentrified location, with perhaps a small dedicated gallery on the ground floor or in the retail area. That gallery will be rentable for social events, of course; nothing tones up a corporate cocktail party or an upscale wedding reception like world-class fine art on the walls, as museums around the country have discovered. And access to any part of the collection not on display will become so restricted that we might as well kiss it goodbye. (You read it here first.) […] The year began for Photocritic International with threats of a six- to seven-figure lawsuit from three goons in expensive suits, related to my pursuit of the Polaroid Collection debacle. The goodfellas in question who tried making me an offer I couldn’t refuse: Mitchell Zuckerman, President of Sotheby’s Ventures, LLC: John R. Stoebner, the court-appointed Chapter 7 Trustee in the PBE Corporation bankruptcy proceeding; and George H. Singer, Esq., Stoebner’s attack poodle. The year concluded, approximately, with my call for the resignation of another thug, William “Wild Bill” Turnage, managing trustee of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, consequent to his corruption of the Center for Creative Photography and the University of Arizona-Tucson, where that institution is based. […] |
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Polaroid Collection: Done Deals
There were no bids made on the photographs still at Sotheby’s. This cluster, named the “Sotheby’s Assets” by the court, had a minimum bid figure of $556,750 during the earlier bidding period. It’s my understanding that this lot includes some 685 works, among them the ones withdrawn just prior to the auction due to the campaign to stop the auction, those that went unsold at the auction, and presumably some others brought down from storage in Somerville to Sotheby’s in anticipation of the auction but for various reasons not included therein. […]