General

My French Doppelgänger

Hello Kobi, I’m a print enthusiast and collector from France. I own a small website which is a guide to print collecting: www.lithographie-collection.com . I have read your guide on collecting Picasso’s print with great amazement! I see we have a similar way of writing about our passion, and are compelled to help our reader enjoy their collecting journey (and avoiding scams on the way!). I was wondering if I could maybe translate some extracts of your guide in French, and publish it on my website. I would do the best translation possible, have it reviewed and, of course, link to you website and cite you has the author of the guide.  In exchange, I’d be glad to “give” you some of […]

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Unnatural Disasters: The Perils of Paper

2015 and -16 were the years of unnatural disasters.  For us, anyway.  I’m referring to conservation disasters.  Not Trump’s anti-EPA EPA appointment, not that kind of conservation.  No, today I’d like to tell you about our paper conservation disasters, because, as unfortunate as these events were, they are also teaching moments.  I’ll share these case studies with you in order to arm you against the kind of conservation quandaries you may well eventually encounter, provided only that you don’t break yourself of the bad habit of collecting. Our slide into conservation hell started with the ruination of one of the two impressions we had at the time of Pique, Rouge et Jaune (Bloch 908, above).  The other impression was in fine condition, but this one had

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THE ORATOR,
from Another Museum in our Backyard

In some ways, we in the Bay Area live in a cultural wasteland.  Well, this was Jerry’s home and still the hub of the Dead two decades after his death, but as for the visual arts, we’re not New York or Paris.  So any sighting of a Picasso about town deserves being called to your attention.  Here’s one that has shuttled between sister museums, having spent a number of years at the Legion of Honor before arriving and being put up in style at the De Young Museum.  It took a few years, but this amusing plaster has really grown on me over successive sightings.  Don’t miss it—L’Orateur (The Orator, 1933-34).  It upstairs on the second floor.  Take a break

THE ORATOR,
from Another Museum in our Backyard
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HOLIDAY GREETINGS!

Happy holidays to all!  I’m talkin’ ta you, yeah you—all you wonderful folks who have made peddling Picassos personally possible and, more importantly, who have enriched our lives and made them so much more interesting because you’re in them.  So…we’ve survived another year, and I don’t mean in business—I mean the world.  And no doubt you’re as apprehensive about the next year as we are.  So to all of you, Casey and I and the kids wish you peace and health and all the best for the new year! It occurs to me that you just might be wondering who this collective “you” might be, or that at some point you might have wondered who the other collectors are “out

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WUT WUZ ON DA BLOCK

The biggest steal this season, in my humble, came and went at Christie’s NY earlier this month in the form of a Picasso “Surrealist” oil on canvas, the 1929 Figure.  At 33 x 41 cm (13 x 16 1/8 in.), it is not a large painting but neither is it a particularly small one. These days Picasso Surrealism is not exactly the most sought after of his many periods, and quite a number of canvases from this period have sold at what I consider well below their relative worth, but none comes close to this bargain.  Its impressive provenance, including prior ownership by the storied Picasso dealer a generation or so ago, the Perls Galleries of New York, didn’t seem

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THE MUSEUM IN OUR BACKYARD

The SFMOMA finally reopened earlier this year, featuring a large and world-class contemporary art collection courtesy of the Fisher Family, founders of the Gap chain.  After several visits, I can in good conscience even refer to it as the “new and improved” SFMOMA.  My initial impression, however, wasn’t so rosy. Our first visit was all too brief.  Gina and I arrived past the hour of gaining admittance to the galleries.  We managed a walk through the lobby of the old building, then up a new staircase into the new wing, and finally down a flight of stairs leading to the colossal Stella, in which we happily lost ourselves, wandering in, through and about: Unlike many art and architecture aficionados, I loved the Mario Botta design

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Wuz NOT on da Block?

We recently round-filed our old auction catalogues.  They were displacing not just all the other books on the bookshelves, but they had even started crowding out the more animate inhabitants of our home.  So speaking strictly from memory, this season’s Imp/Mod auction catalogues nonetheless look a lot thinner than yesteryear’s.  What’s going on, you ask? The explanation seems pretty straightforward, though I cannot prove it, at least not without going to some trouble: the Chinese and the Russians must have become less active in the market, and to a significant extent.  I remember reading that in 2012, the Chinese accounted for 40% of the worldwide purchases at auction.  It ain’t happenin’ now, folks.  So the owners wishing to unload their art

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