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Huge bids smash modern art record ($72.8m for a 1950 Rothko) »

Posted by: _kam0_ 2 years, 7 months ago

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The auction record for post-war art has been smashed twice in one night.

Read Full Story at news.bbc.co.uk »

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_kam0_

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Comments: 28

Avg rating: (+2/-2 0)
jumpmaster
May 16, 2007, 9:56 a.m.
"Huge bids smash modern art record ($72.8m for a 1950 Rothko)"
Who cares?
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
contrast
May 16, 2007, 10:56 a.m.
brown blue on blue...meh I was never a rothko fan. Wood, Litchtenstein, even Warhol Rothko was too bland for me.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
WCFIELDS
May 16, 2007, 11:28 a.m.
...the painting's "commanding scale, sumptuousness and sheer intensity"
Something is wrong with my computer screen.
Avg rating: (+7/-5 2)
WCFIELDS
May 16, 2007, 11:29 a.m.
It's clear that the wealthy did not work too hard for their money.
Avg rating: (+3/-0 3)
jumpmaster
May 16, 2007, 1:59 p.m.
...the painting's "commanding scale, sumptuousness and sheer intensity"
Is this a story about the emperor's new clothes?
Avg rating: (+3/-1 2)
JJman
May 16, 2007, 2:04 p.m.
The painting sucks. Really sucks. I wouldn't pay even 100$ for it
Avg rating: (+3/-1 2)
jumpmaster
May 16, 2007, 2:21 p.m.
They should have used that money to feed poor people or to buy text books or to provide medical care for AIDS patients.
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
inaroundabout
May 16, 2007, 2:46 p.m.
You've got to be kidding me, 4 colors for 70 mil???
Avg rating: (+1/-5 -4)
crespi
May 16, 2007, 3:02 p.m.
Bacon kicks butt, so I can see it with him a little, but with Rothko it's definitely more about the history of Abstract Expressionism.
Art gag response to the price: Have you got anything in a Gottlieb?
Avg rating: (+8/-1 7)
emon
May 16, 2007, 4:03 p.m.
Must be nice to have that kind of money for something that just hangs or sit's there..I doesn't even look good..
Avg rating: (+7/-1 6)
GregD
May 16, 2007, 4:06 p.m.
feh...modern art.
Give my a good Bosch painting, a venus of Willendorf figurine, or a Lascaux cave painting any day of the week over any modern art.
Avg rating: (+5/-0 5)
brothers
May 16, 2007, 4:14 p.m.
Those paintings are really bad. Looks like any child can do it. Give me the Old Dutch Masters anyday.
Avg rating: (+7/-1 6)
Fantagor
May 16, 2007, 5:13 p.m.
The saddest part is that the modern artists never seem to reap the profits from their purported genius, for when they are alive the critics cast aspersions, so their labors are sold for rent money and little else.
But after the artist dies a penniless broken spirit, and the same bastion of critics laud the very same works they damned as trash, and poof! they sell for millions.
The only artists involved in this and other modern art transactions are of the "con" variety.
Randy
Avg rating: (+2/-0 2)
bonaroo
May 16, 2007, 5:45 p.m.
Mind boggling.....you would think he was a baseball player or something.
Avg rating: (+7/-1 6)
Mr_Butterworth
May 16, 2007, 8:02 p.m.
My Kid could do that!
Sincerely,
Mrs Rothko
Avg rating: (+4/-1 3)
Poulenc
May 16, 2007, 9:08 p.m.
(And DID, Mr. Butterworth.)
The cash value of a painting, like that of other art, depends upon a fickle market that trades largely in reputation.
In any case, there's no need to be defensive about art that one doesn't immediately "get," nor about taste that may be more refined than one's own.
Art--its enjoyment--is about looking, looking and then looking again, preferably at the paining itself, in the flesh.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
Goppy
May 16, 2007, 9:51 p.m.
WHAT?
That thar is quazy talk!
Everone knows the best painter in the world was Norman Stormin Rockwell!
I got his art papered all ovur my hobby room. - wich is also my ktichen.
But my real prize d peice of art is my portrait of some dogs playin poker. Now thats art! with a capitol a.
Every time I look at those dogs, its like thy are talkin tot me. And whts really odd is the way their eyes follow me around the room. Its like magic.
HanymanComment has been removed: User banned.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
mamasan
May 17, 2007, 1:07 a.m.
after Rothko died
"It emerged from the trial that the gallery defrauded Rothko and his estate through various methods. The gallery filtered payments for works through accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to ensure that values were under-presented. During the 1960s this led to a huge underestimate by the artist on the value of his works. As a result, he agreed to consignments of dozens of paintings to the gallery & collectors without appreciating the full value. It was also revealed that the gallery had been stockpiling works to ensure a heightened value in the market after his death.
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
mamasan
May 17, 2007, 1:08 a.m.
continued...
The 100 paintings 'sold' by the estate through Marlborough had been retained by the gallery and were quickly 're-sold' for 5 to 6 times the declared value. Certain directors at Marlborough were convicted of defrauding the Rothko family and the Gallery was ordered to pay over $9million in 1975 and costs and return 658 paintings it held by the artist. Marlborough disputed the return of the paintings