Fabulous Finds

J. Lee Drexler, James R. Cohen

Description

Offering an insider's look at the exciting modern art scene, this guide dishes out revealing stories and memorable encounters with the rich and famous--including Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Oprah Winfrey, and Luciano Pavarotti--as well as situations the author would rather forget, such as when a famous rock star tried to seduce her. Rich with personal insights and recollections, this entertaining account also offers a wealth of practical advice on how to successfully appraise and purchase fine art, furniture, antiques, and jewelry without getting cheated, whether in the United States or abroad. Tips on how to successfully sell acquisitions are also featured.

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610350259
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

P RAISE F OR

“Lee Drexler has been my friend and an ardent supporter of the National Arts Club for more than thirty years. During those years, I have enjoyed hearing her stories about the arts scene. She also arranged for the donation of a number of paintings, sculptures, rugs, furnishings, and objets d’art to the club. She organized two major art shows at the club: One Hundred and Fifty Artists from North Carolina and Works of Living African American Artists, honoring Maya Angelou, which were both very successful. I give her a topnotch appraisal.”
—Aldon James, President, National Arts Club
“Lee Drexler’s stories of fabulous finds and famous and interesting people never fail to entertain and inform.”
—Luis & Lucé Fortuño, Governor and First Lady of Puerto Rico
“I read Lee Drexler’s book about her varied experiences as appraiser to the rich and famous with real interest and enjoyment. It’s a great read, filled with valuable advice and quite believable—often remarkable—stories. And I loved the fact that her authentic voice comes through with all its intelligence and character.”
—Niles Eldredge, Curator, American Museum of Natural History
“I have known Lee Drexler and Jim Cohen for a number of years and have been impressed and entertained by their stories about art, antiques, and related tax issues.”
—U.S. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (ID-CT)

Fabulous Finds: How Expert Appraiser Lee Drexler Sold Wall Street’s Charging Bull, Found Hidden Treasures and Mingled with the Rich & Famous
Copyright © 2011 by J. Lee Drexler and James R. Cohen. All rights reserved. Grateful thanks to Arturo DiModica for permission to use images of his Charging Bull sculpture, (c) Arturo DiModica, 1998, and Shanghai Bull sculpture, (c) Arturo DiModica, 2010.

Published by Quill Driver Books an imprint of Linden Publishing 2006 South Mary, Fresno, California 93721 559-233-6633 / 800-345-4447 QuillDriverBooks.com
Quill Driver Books and Colophon are trademarks of Linden Publishing, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-610350-13-6
135798642
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Drexler, J. Lee.
Fabulous finds: how expert appraiser Lee Drexler sold Wall Street’s Charging bull, found hidden treasures, and mingled with the rich & famous / J. Lee Drexler & James R. Cohen.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-61035-013-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Drexler, J. Lee. 2. Art--Valuation--United States. I. Cohen, James R.
II. Title. III. Title: How expert appraiser Lee Drexler sold Wall Street’s Charging bull, found hidden treasures, and mingled with the rich & famous.
N8675.D74 2011
709.2–dc22
    2011002709
To our children, Terri and Brett And our grandchildren, Sonia, Jacob, Gabriel, and Benjamin, And our nephew and niece, Bill and Michelle And their children, David, Lea, Katy, and Jack.
Contents
Preface
Foreword
Introduction
1. Fabulous Finds
2. The Charging Bull
3. Beginnings
4. Stuff of the Rich and Famous
5. Unusual Appraisals
6. Unholy Matrimony: Divorce Appraisals
7. Art Frauds and Related Disasters
8. Keeping It in the Family Estate Appraisals
9. Doing Well By Doing Good Donations to Charity
10. Advice About Buying and Selling Art, Antiques, and Jewelry
Conclusion
Index
About the Authors
Preface
T his book is written for anyone who has bought, or one day will buy or sell, fine art, furniture, antiques, jewelry, or collectibles. That means almost everyone! This book will protect you from being taken advantage of by providing important facts and information, wrapped around interesting stories about some of the fascinating people I have met during my over thirty-five years of appraising. Although you won’t become an instant expert by reading this book, I hope that by the end of it you will have learned enough so you will never be cheated.
Foreword
I have known Lee Drexler and her husband, Jim Cohen, for over 20 years. Throughout the 20 years I have known them (and, I am told, for many years before), both of them have been fascinated with and involved in the always exciting New York art world.
The National Arts Club, of which I am President and CEO, was established at the end of the 19th Century, the oldest arts club in the United States, with more than 1,500 members. I am happy to say that Lee and Jim have been among our most enthusiastic and involved members.
Lee has been telling interesting stories about her exciting career in the fine arts world for all the years I have known her—her stories are always entertaining and informative. Luckily for all of us, she has decided to set out her favorite stories, for all of us to enjoy. Her husband, Jim, has polished them up to add his own special wit and charm and, since he is a well known tax attorney, to also add some useful and easy to read advice to collectors on tax and estate aspects of collecting and disposing of their treasures. In the book, you also get to meet some of the famous and interesting people with whom Lee has rubbed shoulders in her appraisal career.
In 1993, Lee organized a show at the National Arts Club on the arts of North Carolina, a show which included crafts, paintings, and sculptures from the top 150 living North Carolina artists. At this show, we honored Maya Angelou, and the Governor of North Carolina, Terry Sanford, attended. The next year, Lee ran the first show on African-American art (before it became a super-popular area of the arts) and brought to our club the artwork of every well known living African-American artist. At this show, Maya Angelou again was our honoree and Oprah Winfrey, Shari Belafonte, Ruby Dee and many others attended. It was a great success and Lee did an excellent job.
Jim, a super-lawyer and senior partner at Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff and Cohen, is also a songwriter who has written over thirty songs, some published. He and Lee have written two musical plays, “Soldier’s Song” and “My Bear Friend, Ted.”
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Fabulous Finds. It is entertaining and highly informative about the art market today. My appraisal is that this book earns top marks. If you are interested in the art market, in some intimate looks at the lives of the rich and famous, in some practical advice about buying and selling art, or would just like a good read, I highly recommend Fabulous Finds to you.
Aldon James
President, National Arts Club, New York City
Introduction
I t was March 17, 2008, and I was at Sotheby’s Auction House at Seventy-Second and York in New York City for its Asian Contemporary Art sale. I was not a casual spectator. A painting by Zao Wou-Ki, a twentieth-century Chinese artist, that I had discovered in a client’s apartment was going up for auction.
The beneficiary of an estate owned the painting. Her mother, who had recently died, had owned the painting for many years. She and her daughter had believed that the painting was worth $7,000; the price for which it was insured. I had surprised, shocked, and delighted the daughter and the attorney for the estate when I gave them the exciting news that the painting was, in fact, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. At my suggestion, the owner was now selling it at the auction. The dramatic moment when my discovery would be validated or debunked was about to arrive! I had appraised the painting for $650,000. Finally, this was the adrenaline rush scene where I would discover the outcome.
Sitting in Sotheby’s, one of the two largest auction houses in the world, is exciting for any art lover. For me, with my judgment and reputation on the line, it had become edge-of-the-seat dramatic. The bidding for the Zao Wou-Ki painting started at $200,000 and increased by $5,000 increments. The frenzied bidding took place so quickly, with the speed of the Kentucky Derby, that in no time, the price had more than doubled. By the end, the bids bounced back and forth in a tug of war between two avid (one might even say rabid) collectors. Forget the Kentucky Derby; this was more like Wimbledon, only instead of batting a little yellow tennis ball back and forth, the two combatants were busy smashing bids at each other for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The bidding finally stopped at $590,000, putting a spectacular $590,000 in the seller’s hands for a painting she had originally thought was worth only $7,000. (As usual, Sotheby’s charged a commission to the buyer, in this case about $100,000, so the final cost to the buyer was $690,000
In the normally subdued auction room, people clapped and cheered to have witnessed such a tense proceeding. Half of them clapped because they were happy that the suspense was over; the other half cheered the outcome and the boldness of the two final bidders. As for myself, I was delighted that my client was going to reap the financial rewards, and that a valuable piece of art had been unhidden. Professionally speaking, this was also an affirmation of my professional ability that my appraisal had turned out to be so accurate.
This is part of the great thrill of being an appraiser, the treasure hunt aspect of finding an unexpected gem and, best of all, surprising the owners with a value that is often well beyond what they had ever imagined. Going into many different homes, making great discoveries and helping people realize riches they had never dreamed of is part of the fine art of what I do—something that, I’