The Art Newspaper

by Lindsay Pollock, 28 Sep 10

The crème of New York asset manager Neuberger Berman's corporate art collection, assembled over twenty years, was sold off during a three-hour auction at Sotheby's on 25 September. The sale raised $12.3 million to benefit the creditors of Lehman Brothers, the bankrupt financial giant that had acquired Neuberger in 2003; it was projected to tally up to $12 million. Read on...

Bloomberg reported that two signs from the London headquarters of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sold at auction for a total of £70,800 pounds ($111,700) as collectors and souvenir hunters snapped up remains of the collapsed bank. [..]

"Everyone recognizes the bankruptcy was the turning point in the economy," William Porter, head of British and Irish art at Christie's South Kensington, said in an interview before the sale. "The infamy of the name is a good provenance. The attraction lies in the car-crash element." Read the article..

A recent swathe of auction records has led, as in 2004, to speculation that the rich may once again be treating art as an investment vehicle. Major records include Giacometti's L'Homme Qui Marche I, 1960, which sold for £65m at Sotheby's London in February, Picasso's Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur, 1932-the world's most expensive work of art-sold in May, for $106.4m at Christie's New York, and Rubens' Portrait of a Commander, around 1612-14, sold for £9m at Christie's London last July. Read more in The Art Newspaper.

Damien Hirst epitomized the boom: Artprice database says $100 invested in Hirst in 1998 would now fetch $452. Image source: Poketo.com.

• The Affordable Art Fair, New York, NY: Sept 30-Oct 3

• Art Forum Berlin, Berlin, Germany: Oct 7-10

• Frieze Art Fair, London, UK: Oct 14-17

• Abu Dhabi Art, Abu Dhabi, UAE: Nov 4-7

• Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, FL: Dec 2-5

• Los Angeles Art Show: Los Angeles, CA: Jan 19-23, 2011