Kathy Fuld, Wife of Lehman CEO, to Auction Artworks

(here comes the fall out)
By Lindsay Pollock

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Kathy Fuld, the art-collecting wife of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, is selling a $20 million set of rare Abstract Expressionist drawings at a November auction, according to two art dealers.
Christie's International, which is offering the works in New York on Nov. 12, declined to reveal the seller's identity. The auction house announced the sale of the drawings, including three by Willem de Kooning, four days after Lehman filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history on Sept. 15. Two New York-based dealers who specialize in similar works said Fuld is the seller. They declined to be named.
``These kinds of drawings are extremely rare,'' said Amy Cappellazzo, co-head of Christie's Postwar and contemporary art department. ``The collector considers drawing as a primary art form.''
Richard Fuld earned $34.4 million in 2007 running the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank -- pay that lawyers said may be the target of lawsuits by creditors. He sold Lehman shares that were worth $247 million a year and a half ago for less than $500,000 last week after the stock price collapsed.
The Christie's auction includes the de Koonings, five Barnett Newmans, four Arshile Gorkys and four Agnes Martins. De Kooning's kinetic orange-haired 1951 ``Woman'' in graphite, charcoal, pastel and oil on paper is expected to fetch as much as $4 million.
The collection was assembled over a number of years, according to Cappellazzo, who said the seller first approached Christie's and rival Sotheby's about an auction in the summer. Christie's completed the deal in August, she said. Fuld is well known in the art world for her passion for works on paper. High-Level Buyer ``She buys at the highest level,'' said New York dealer Joan Washburn. ``If you have a great drawing, you offer it to her.'' Fuld is vice-chairman of the board of trustees at New York's Museum of Modern Art and has promised a number of artworks to the museum including works by Jasper Johns and Louise Bourgeois. Phone calls and emails to the press offices of Lehman and MoMA seeking comment from Fuld were unanswered.
Among the drawings slated for sale is a 1946-47 Gorky drawing titled ``Study for Agony I,'' estimated to sell for up to $2.8 million. The drawing is a study for ``Agony,'' a 1947 red and brown abstract painting owned by MoMA.
Newman's 1960 black-and-white ink-on-paper ``Untitled'' is expected to fetch up to $2 million. The same work sold at Sotheby's in New York in 1997 for $244,500, according to the Artnet pricing database. Billionaire Ronald Lauder is listed among prior owners in the 2004 Yale University Press ``Barnett Newman: a Catalogue Raisonne,'' a directory of the artist's output.
The Fulds lent two other Newmans to the artist's 2002 retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, curated by Ann Temkin, who was recently named MoMA's chief curator.
Larger Collection
Dealers say the works at auction are a small part of a larger collection which also includes contemporary artists such as Brice Marden. A New York dealer said a Jackson Pollock drawing owned by Fuld was offered for sale this summer at the Art Basel art fair held in June in Switzerland. The works are likely to sell well, some dealers say. ``Judging from the images, I'd say the drawings are all at least A-minus works and my feeling is they will find homes,'' said New York art adviser Thea Westreich.
Since the Lehman collapse, Kathy Fuld has kept up her public appearances. Guests noticed her on Tuesday night at a farewell cocktail party at MoMA for retiring curator Kynaston McShine.
(Lindsay Pollock writes on the art market for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer of this story: Lindsay Pollock in New York at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com. Last Updated: September 26, 2008 15:33 EDT

THE HOTEL CHELSEA

The New York neighborhood called Chelsea takes its name from the estate of British Army Captain Thomas Clarke, who retired to the then rural area after the French and Indian Wars. He named his estate - on the west side of Manhattan near the Hudson River - after London’s Royal Chelsea Hospital for soldiers. By the 1850s the land was divided into lots and developed. Today the area is a thriving neighborhood of brownstones, tenements, tree-lined streets, restaurants, and art galleries. In the midst of all this stands the Victorian Gothic beauty of the Chelsea Hotel. The hotel has always been a center of artistic and bohemian activity and it houses artwork created by many of the artists who have visited including the work of Truman Marquez (posted on and linked to this blog). The hotel was the first building to be listed by New York City as a cultural preservation site and historic building of note. The twelve-story red-brick building that now houses the Hotel Chelsea was built in 1883 as a private apartment cooperative that opened in 1884; it was the tallest building in New York until 1899. At the time Chelsea, and particularly the street on which the hotel was located, was the center of New York's Theater District. Within a few years the combination of economic worries and the relocation of theaters bankrupted the Chelsea cooperative. In 1905, the building was purchased and opened as a hotel.

This landmark has attracted famous guests and residents. It is both a birth place of creative modern art. Bob Dylan composed songs while staying at the Chelsea, and poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso chose it as a place for philosophical and intellectual exchange. On the other hand it is famed for its guest engaging in illegal, illicit and bad behavior. Poet, Dylan Thomas died of alcohol poisoning on in 1953 while staying there and where Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols may have stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, to death on October 12, 1978.

Visitors and residents of the Chelsea Hotel include Eugene O’Neil, and Arthur C. Clarke (who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey while in residence). Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and the Grateful Dead passed through the hotels doors in the 1960s. Virgil Thompson, Larry Rivers, William Burroughs, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Patti Smith, Arthur Miller, Dylan Thomas, and many, many others stayed here too. Marquez recalls staying in the same room as Thomas Wolfe. Perhaps these ghosts residing here have influenced guests through osmosis.

The hotel is located on West 23rd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, in the heart of the art infused Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It is centrally located between Greenwich Village and Midtown. From the front door of the hotel, one can easily walk to the Chelsea art galleries, the Meatpacking District, the Flatiron building, and Union Square. A short taxi or subway ride will bring you to Times Square, Central Park, Greenwich Village, Soho, and other New York City destinations.

The Chelsea boasts a selection of accommodations. Its rich history as home to greats in literature and art is reflected in the rooms that are filled with natural light (often floor-to-ceiling windows), eclectic period and modern furnishings and a sense of spaciousness. Artful décor can reflect the Belle Epoque or Today, as there is a legacy in each. It is completely modernized with Air Conditioning, Cable TV, Comfortable Parlors in the Suites, Studios with Kitchenette, Full Ensuite Bath or with Shower, Rooms with Shared Bath, often Work Areas with Desk and Ample Lighting Daily Maid Service.