A Nazi-looted Modigliani was seized from the Geneva Freeport in the collection of Edmond Safra’s cousin David Nahmad. That heaven of anonymity was also the site of the “Bouvier affair,” an art world scandal involving an art handler turned dealer, a Russian oligarch, secret bank accounts, and even a Leonardo. Yves Bouvier, “the king of the freeports,” […]
Le Monde and Conaissance des arts tell the story of a Modigliani sold by Christie’s and purchased by a marchand and collector cousin of Edmond Safra. The Nazis stole the work from Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner. The Nahmad family, alleged owners, represented to US authorities that the painting was part of the assets of IAC, an […]
“To win that war, we need a commander-in-chief, not a law professor standing at a lectern.” Sarah Palin, 2008 The bully who promised to “smoke him out of his cave” and his pack of thugs (Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) failed to deliver. A Constitutional law professor accomplished the mission. Three years into his presidency, […]
Tuesday’s victory for Barack Obama proved that poetry and justice are still vibrant possibilities. I hear America singing. Whitman, Thoreau, Martin Luther King still ring with authenticity. Could days of lies, unfairness, and blindness to inequity be part of our painful growth as a nation? Can a new leadership bring new optimism in the […]
UPDATE The marriage of Thi Nga Goldman (TiNa, her childhood name in Chatelet) to Miami lawyer Steven Goldman has ended. Court records indicate that the partner at Greenberg Traurig has filed for divorce. GOLDMAN, STEVEN E VS TANG TON, THI-NGA CONG -2011-000030-FC-04 -132011DR000030A001CH -N/A FC17 (Section, FC 17) DOM 01/03/2011. While the divorce of […]
The Imperial Downfall of the Bass Museum A Simulacrum of Feudal Order in a City of Delusion The alleged princess and philanthropist Dolores Ziff Hollywood made it to SoBe. A polychromatic elephant parade moved down Collins Avenue, the production of a princess, the Bass Museum and the City of Miami Beach. There were “Gifts of […]
Note: No representation of accuracy is made of the price, sales, and gallery information. Over 30,000 visitors attended the third installment of Art Basel-Miami Beach. The art business is symptomatic of a specific stage in the business cycle. The volume of sales indicates the extent to which art is an investment strategy, a store of value, […]
