Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Controversy Over Cohen’s Women at Sotheby’s
Edvard Munch’s Madonna is on display at Sotheby’s NY, as part of Women: An Exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures On Loan from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Collection.
Modern Art Obsessions has posted some criticism of Sotheby’s exhibition of a selection of billionaire, Steven Cohens’ private collection. Cohen now owns almost 6% of the auction house, and while Sotheby’s has stated none of the 20 works are for sale, concerns over possible nepotism and market manipulation have emerged. Read MAO’s thoughts here and Lindsay Pollock’s report for Bloomberg here.
One Response to “Controversy Over Cohen’s Women at Sotheby’s”
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April 3rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
starpower said:
MAO’s blog posting includes many observations, most of which are completely flawed. In the Lindsay Pollock article, nothing about this exhibition has been questioned.
Sotheby’s is not a non-profit organization. It can choose to present non-commercial exhibitions as a public service. Even if there are suspicions that such an exhibition may directly or indirectly generate sales, there is nothing unethical or illegal about such an outcome.
Sotheby’s and other auction houses have “private treaty” sales. Like any commercial enterprise in the visual arts, they are entitled maintain the privacy of the buyers and sellers in such transactions.
It is only in the area of conducting auctions that Sotheby’s is licensed and required to act according the spirit and the letter of the law.
The above-posted blog entry on MAO is a disservice to the visual arts. There’s nothing wrong or unethical about this exhibition, and MAO is trying create a controversy where none actually exists.