Secondary market private sales have long been an important part of the art business. They are also, perhaps, the most opaque. When negotiating between a buyer and a seller, how private should the terms of a sale be? How much about a gallery’s closed-door deal-making do clients have a right to know? And at what point does driving a hard bargain begin to break the law? 

These questions are at the heart of 93-year-old collector Jan Cowles’s ongoing case against megadealer Larry Gagosian and his eponymous gallery. They take on added significance now that Gagosian’s long-awaited deposition has been made publicly available. The sales dispute has placed the exceedingly private Gagosian Gallery — and now, its exceedingly private owner — under a microscope.

In a March article on the suit, the New York Times published an e-mail written by Deborah McLeod, a director of Gagosian’s Los Angeles branch, that has since become notorious in art world circles. “Seller now in terrible straits and needs cash,” McLeod wrote a potential buyer, attempting to broker a transaction. “Are you interested in making a cruel and offensive offer? Come on, want to try?”

Gagosian’s deposition — which took place on October 4 and lasted a total of 7.5 hours — touches on various aspects of that “cruel and offensive offer” as well as the dealer’s business practices more generally. Alongside the depositions of McLeod and former Gagosian director John Good, a close look at the dealer’s testimony confirms what many already knew about the most famous gallery in the world: Sensitive information is held close to the vest, profits are high, and pressure to sell is even higher. Of McLeod’s somewhat inelegant e-mail, Gagosian commented, “It’s just kind of cruel. It’s strange language to use in connection with an art transaction.” (Later, he added, “I thought it was kind of a funny way to put it… Maybe she was trying to appeal to his animal instincts.”)

The lawsuit, first filed in January, revolves around “Girl in Mirror,” a 1964 enamel-on-metal work by Roy Lichtenstein created in an edition of ten. In court papers, Cowles alleges that her son, Charles, a former art dealer and publisher of Artforum, consigned “Girl in Mirror” to Gagosian in 2008 without her knowledge or consent. (At the same time, Charles also offered up Mike Tansey’s “The Innocent Eye Test,” despite the fact that Cowles had promised it as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A lawsuit surrounding the Tansey sale was settled for $4.4 million and the painting has since been returned to the museum.)

After a year of unsuccessful attempts to sell “Girl in Mirror,” the gallery finally made a deal. It sold the work to London-based collector and financier Thompson Dean, who agreed to pay a total of $2 million on an installment plan. The problem? According to the original consignment agreement, Gagosian had promised Charles $2.5 million for the work. He received just $1 million instead, while Gagosian took a hefty $1 million commission.

Cowles’s lawyers argue that Gagosian’s sales techniques — which allegedly include lying about the work’s condition, misrepresenting the level of demand for the work, and skewing the balance of information in favor of the buyer — amount to conversion, replevin, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and unjust enrichment. They’re asking for over $4.5 million for the artwork and $10 million in punitive damages. (For context, note that the gallery valued the work at $4.5 million on a customs invoice in 2008. Another edition from the same series sold at Sotheby’s in 2007 for just over $4 million; yet another sold at Christie’s in the fall of 2010 for $4.9 million.)

In his testimony, Gagosian maintains he is simply a gutsy businessman who was doing all he could to sell a damaged work of art in the depths of a recession. “I felt I was taking a risk given the circumstances because if Dean didn’t close, based on my experience trying to market this piece, it really wasn’t for most people a matter of price,” he said. “They just didn’t want a picture that was damaged like that, even at a million dollars or 750.”

So far, Cowles’s team is winning the fight. Judge Charles E. Ramos of New York State Supreme Court denied Gagosian’s motion to dismiss the case in September, ruling that the gallery’s actions “sufficiently state a cause of action for fraud” and present a factual question as to whether it “properly discharged its duty of care” to Cowles. The dealer’s lawyers have indicated they will appeal that decision and in the meantime hope to minimize the amount of sensitive financial information they must disclose as part of discovery.

Meanwhile, the most interesting question at the center of the case remains unanswered: What exactly is a dealer’s duty to his client? In his deposition, Gagosian said, “As a matter of practice, art dealers frequently represent the buyer and the seller.” His gallery has often done so, he admitted, without disclosing his relationship to both parties. “That’s the way dealers work,” he said. But Cowles’s lawyers argue that this practice is illegal. “The prohibition against undisclosed dual agency is based upon the common sense principle that ‘when an agent acts for adverse interests, he must necessarily be unfaithful to one or the other as the duties which he owes to his respective principles are conflicting,’” they write, citing two earlier cases.

The defense may argue that although Gagosian and his employees frequently use the term “client” or “agent” when describing their relationship to a buyer, their actions prove their fundamental aim has always been to achieve the best price for their true client, the seller — and, in so doing, the highest commission for themselves. (Still, it's interesting to note that another lawsuit pending against Larry Gagosian, brought by billionaire Ronald Perelman, claims that the dealer owed a “fiduciary duty” to the plaintiff — in that case, the buyer — whereas Cowles's suit claims he owes the same loyalty to Charles, the seller.) 

“The deposition, testimony, and documents tell a disturbing story of gross misconduct and substantial punitive damages are warranted,” David Baum, Jan Cowles’s lawyer, told ARTINFO. Neither Gagosian Gallery nor its lawyer immediately responded to requests for comment.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The notoriously complex and difficult world of copyright law took on yet another twist last week after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., a case that will be closely watched by those who make their living buying and selling creative material — including visual art. 

The court’s decision on the suit, which experts expect will come down to a close 5-4 vote, will have broad consequences over the rights of copyright holders in the creative fields — particularly those who believe they should be entitled to royalties and control over creative material that is bought and sold more than once. In many ways, the case — which concerns the resale of overseas-reprints of textbooks — resembles the dispute over the California Resale Royalties Act, which reached a high point last year when artists including Chuck Close and Robert Graham went to court trying to claim a percentage in the profits made on works of art that had been sold on the secondary market.

But the issue becomes all the more tricky when international frontiers are involved. While living in the United States and attending graduate school, Thai student Supap Kirtsaeng decided he could make a bit of cash by selling textbooks — specifically, books that had originally been published by an American firm but manufactured by a company with a license to print them in Thailand.

Because manufacturing costs in the Far East were much lower, Kirtsaeng's family was able to find books that had been printed at a fraction of the cost of similar American editions. Operating in the so-called “gray market,” he made some $100,000 in profits when he sold the Thai-printed books on eBay to customers back in the United States.

Kirtsaeng believed what he was doing was legal, but American publisher John Wiley and Sons took issue. When they found out that their books were among those distributed by Kirtsaeng, they sued for damages, asserting that he had infringed on their exclusive rights to sell or import their licensed material. The district court awarded Wiley $600,000; the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision.

Speaking before the Supreme Court last week, Kirtsaeng’s counsel asserted that this was a mistake, citing the “first sale doctrine,” which allows the owner of a copy of a licensed work the right to sell or distribute it on the secondary market.

On the surface of things, the wording of the Copyright Act is on Kirtsaeng’s side. “The owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title,” Section 109(a) reads, “is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord.”

Not surprisingly, however, lawyers for the American publisher have a much different take on this section. They argued that because the textbooks sold by Kirtsaeng had been manufactured in Thailand, outside of the domain of United States law, the phrase “lawfully made under this title” did not apply. In this interpretation, the first sale doctrine could not be enforced on copyrighted material that had come to being outside the borders of the U.S.

Meanwhile, Kirtsaeng’s counsel insisted that so long as the books were printed with Wiley’s permission and purchased legitimately, he was within his rights to sell the books in the United States at will. Hinting that a profound revision of the “first sale doctrine” would place severe limits on businesses and institutions to sell or distribute a licensed piece of creative material, Kirtsaeng’s lawyers argued that allowing Wiley to block the secondary sale of creative material would give copyright holders “endless, eternal downstream control over sales and rentals” of their property, according to a report in Business Week.

The art world, in particular, would not be untouched by this radical change in behavior. “If someone in the U.S. owned a painting that they had purchased from someone who made it overseas, and you purchase the painting here,” Columbia law professor Ronald Mann told ARTINFO, “the copyright would prevent you from reselling the painting without their permission.”

Speaking to Wiley’s lawyer, Theodore B. Olson, Justice Breyer seemed ready to reveal his disposition on the issue when he described a scenario in which the owner of a Toyota could be prevented from re-selling his car if it contained sound or GPS systems protected by a copyright.

“If I am looking for the bear in the mouse hole, I look at those horribles, and there I see that bear,” he said, according to SCOTUSblog.org. “I’m asking you to spend some time telling me why I’m wrong.”

– James Franco Paints His Bed: Another day, another strange art project by James Franco. The actor, author, and notoriously overextended art person recently uploaded a photograph of his paint-splattered face onto the website WhoSay coupled with a shot of a teddy bear splayed across his bed, which is also doused in paint. Is the series an oblique reference to Robert Rauschenberg's famous paint-splattered combine "Bed" (1955)? Or simply another attempt to come across as artistic and eccentric? We may never know. [HuffPo]

– Obama Mural Voted Inappropriate: A 15-foot stencil mural depicting President Barack Obama inside a Philadelphia school that served as a polling place on Tuesday earned the ire of Republic officials, who pointed out that it's illegal under Pennsylvania state law to have campaign materials at voting sites. Workers at the polling site covered the image, by Daniel Woehrle (better known by his street art name STENZSKULL), much to his amusement: "I really had nothing to do with it. It’s been four years since I painted that image." [New Times]

– Yoko Ono to Direct London Festival: For its 20th anniversary edition next year, the Meltdown Festival at London's Southbank Centre has tapped Yoko Ono as its director, a position previously held by fellow artist-musicians including Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, Patti Smith, and Laurie Anderson. "I am aware of the great tradition of experimentalism mixed with classicism that has made the festival such an enduring part of the British arts landscape," Ono said. [Telegraph]

– CCS Bard Acquires Major Archives: The library of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College has acquired the archives of both the American Fine Arts, Co. and New York's legendary Pat Hearn Gallery from the estate of Colin de Land. "This acquisition gives us the opportunity to preserve this unique material and make it available for research," said the director of CCS Bard's library and archives Ann Butler, "providing our students and others with an opportunity to study and historicize two central and innovative figures of the New York art world.” [Press Release]

– Turner and Rubens Donated to Dodge Death Tax: A trove of cultural artifacts worth an estimated £40 million ($63.7 million) has been donated from personal estates to the U.K. in the past two years in lieu of paying approximately £25 million ($40 million) in death taxes, including paintings by JMW Turner, Peter Paul Rubens, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, the entire archive of science fiction author J.G. Ballard, and Harold Pinter's 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature. "The acceptance in lieu scheme has been responsible for some incredible treasures entering museums and galleries around the nation where they can be enjoyed by all," said culture minister Ed Vaizey. "It's not just the large national museums that benefit — some of our smallest galleries have been allocated stunning works." [BBC]

– French Monuments Turn to Online Micro-Funding: France's Center for National Monuments, which oversees most of the major historical sites in the country, has signed up with micro-funding site My Major Company to help solicit donations from ordinary citizens through the campaign "Anyone Can be a Patron." "Participatory funding is just starting to take hold in France, and we know it can work," said My Major Company director Victor Lugger. "What we need is to create a movement." [Le Figaro]

– Bill Fontana Wins CERN Residency: The pioneering American sound artist, 65, has been awarded the coveted Prix Ars Electronica Collide @ CERN award. Fontana will earn €10,000 in prize money, a two-month residency at CERN (the home of the Large Hadron Collider), and a one-month residency at Ars Electronica, an Austrian arts organization. At CERN, Fontana will be matched with a "science inspiration partner" to guide him, which officially makes this one of the coolest residencies ever. [Press Release]

– Starn Brothers' South Ferry Mosaic Survives Sandy: New York's South Ferry station flooded dramatically during Hurricane Sandy, but Doug and Mike Starn's 250-foot-long mural inside the station, "See It Split, See It Change," emerged relatively unharmed. The layered glass tiles, which bear images printed on interior layers, were created to withstand the elements. Still, the brothers want the subtle marks left by the storm to stay put. "We hope that the stains of the dirty sea water will remain; public art is alive, it exists in a very real world and the real world exists in it," they said. [AiA] 

– Whiteread Sculpture Stolen Off the Wall: A wall sculpture valued at £24,000 by British artist Rachel Whiteread was stolen last month from a central London dealer during opening hours. But there's a twist: "An ordinary art thief would probably not even recognize it as art," according to the Art Newspaper. The sculpture is simply a panel of light switches made out of aluminum. Because the materials have very little scrap value, according to TAN, "the only possible explanation seems to be that it was stolen by a villain who loves Whiteread." [TAN]

– Columbus Museum Cuts Staff: The Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio has laid off six staff members in an effort to cut costs and streamline operations in advance of its planned $37.6-million renovation and expansion. The eliminated positions include store manager, manager of volunteers, educator for family programs, family-program coordinator, special-events assistant, and capital-campaign manager. The construction is expected to last two years. The museum has 80 remaining full-time employees. [Dispatch]

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Clip by street artist STENZSKULL

ALSO ON ARTINFO:

Christie's Limp $205-Million Sale Prompts Talk of "A Crack in the Market"

Turkish Art Treads a Delicate Line Between Spectacle and Symbolism in Paris

Is Keith Haring Undervalued? Insiders Bet Big on a "Correction" in His Market

Larry Gagosian Testifies About His Business Practices — So What Do We Learn?

Abu Dhabi Art Report: The UAE Fair Brings Great Art, But Could Use More Buyers

Fairytale Fancy: Chopard Dazzles Disney With Princess-Inspired Jewels

For more breaking art news throughout the day,
check ARTINFO's In the Air blog.

What is the most frequently stolen artwork in history? The answer is The Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, stolen six times (seven, depending on who you ask).  The most frequently given incorrect answer (even the Guinness Book of World Records got this wrong) is in fact second runner-up for the dubious distinction of “most stolen artwork:” Rembrandt’s Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III, which was lifted from London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery on four separate occasions. Here, in brief, is the story of the so-called “Takeaway Rembrandt.”

This is one half of a pair of pendant portraits by Rembrandt, painted in 1632. Jacob de Gheyn III (1596-1641) was an engraver from Utrecht, who was portrayed opposite his friend, Maurits Huygens, each in their own oil painting, but meant to be displayed as a pair.  The painting is particularly small (meaning portable), only 11.8 x 9.8 inches (29.9 x 24.9 cm) in size.

Just why this painting has been the object of four thefts is uncertain — nor is it clear whether more than one theft was undertaken by a single person or group. In fact, only the bare facts have been published about the thefts, but here they are.

Theft One: One of Nine

In 1966, a group of thieves broke into the Dulwich Picture Gallery during the night and stole nine paintings, including three Rembrandts and a Rubens drawing. The theft made headlines, launching the little-visited Gallery to fame, and the publicity may have spooked the criminals. The Rembrandts were, shortly thereafter, found by someone walking his dog on Streatham Common in London, abandoned under a bush. The rest of the stolen art was found under a bench in a nearby cemetery.

Theft Two: He Looks Like My Mother

The second theft sounds like the punch line to a joke. A visitor to the Picture Gallery stuffed the painting under his sweater and walked out of the museum with it. He was, however, quickly found — because he was bicycling around London’s South Circular with the painting seated in the basket of his bike. When arrested and asked why he took it, the man said that the painting reminded him of his mother.

Theft Three: Taxi Cab Recovery

In late August 1981, the portrait was stolen yet again, most likely slipped out under a coat or inside a bag. The public was never informed about who stole the work or how it was pulled off. The crime was only discovered some weeks after the painting had gone missing, and its recovery was kept equally murky. Police found the painting in a taxi with four men in it — depending on which source you refer to, some say that these men were arrested, while others say that some deal was made for the return of the painting via the taxi, and that the men were never charged.

Theft Four: Skylight Heist

The most cinematic of the thefts took place after hours in 1983. A skylight at the museum was smashed, a la Mission: Impossible, and thieves entered the museum vertically, by shimmying down a rope.  The alarm was triggered as soon as the skylight broke, and the police arrived in three minutes, but the thieves had already escaped. It might be surprising that this is not the only art-theft-by-skylight: Art was stolen from Colnaghi Gallery in Manhattan and the Montreal Museum of Art through this dramatic method of entry. The motive for the theft is unknown, as is the reason for its recovery. On October 8, 1986, police received an anonymous tip that the painting could be found in the left luggage section of a rail station by the British military barracks in Munster, Germany.

It’s no small distinction to be remembered as the second-most-frequently-stolen artwork in history — still, credit must still go to The Ghent Altarpiece for claiming first place. The Guinness folks have been informed of the error in their records. Van Eyck’s “Takeaway Altarpiece” will soon get the dubious distinction it deserves.

Dr. Noah Charney is a bestselling author and professor of art history specializing in art crime. His book, Stealing the Mystic Lamb: the True Story of the World’s Most Famous Painting tells the story of the many thefts of The Ghent Altarpiece. He teaches the history of art crime on the ARCA Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection. 

Movie stars and fashion houses have a symbiotic relationship, depending on one another for success. Dior is no exception. The label’s namesake, Christian Dior, had a strong connection to film and worked as costume designer years before he founded his couture business. The recently-published tome “Stars in Dior” (Rizzoli) follows the summer exhibition of the same name at the Christian Dior Museum in Granville, France. The coffee table book features a number of images of celebrities in Dior, including a shot of the legendary designer doing a fitting on Ava Gardener in 1957, Elizabeth Taylor wearing the 1961 Soirée à Rio couture gown by Marc Bohan when she accepted the Best Actress Oscar for “Butterfield 8” that same year, and red carpet appearances of actresses like Tilda Swinton, Natalie Portman, and Marion Cotillard.

ARTINFO spoke to Florence Müller, curator of the “Stars in Dior” exhibition and contributor to the book, about the relationship between designers and actresses, Dior’s favorite star, and which of the ensembles she likes best.

How was it curating the “Stars in Dior” exhibition?

It was really great because it was a new way on looking at the story of Dior, and it was a field to be explored, and of course when you have a new subject, it’s very nice because you have the opportunity of doing many researches on this story. We have worked a lot in the French Cinémathèque and German Cinémathèque. In Paris we found many documents and elements. It was the opportunity of writing the complete list of movies that were dressed up with Dior’s costumes and it was very interesting to see that the house was very involved in this form of expression. It was great moment. Let’s say that this connection between Dior and the cinema and Hollywood, it’s rather natural because Christian Dior was a costume maker before being a couturier, and this was very important. He costumed seven movies before opening his house in 1947. He made these costumes for many movies. He had a strong taste for shows and the idea of being on the stage, the connection between a character and the costume. It was really one of his first loves to design costumes. He himself would be in different costumes during parties, and he really he had a strong taste about this. You can feel it when you look at different examples from these movies. We know that through some archives and testimony that he was designing these costumes with many details and involvement — very strong, very serious. He was taking this as a real subject.

Where did you source the ensembles?

From the Christian Dior Museum in Granville, France. They have a collection of dresses, accessories, and documents, and also there is a loan from the Christian Dior archives, but there were also many loans from this exhibition, from the French Cinémathèque Française in Paris. We had also very important loans from Deutsche Kinemathek and for this famous wardrobe of Marlene Dietrich. Marlene Dietrich kept her wardrobe and donated it to Deutsche Kinemathek. In this collection, we had the chance of asking many loans of many dresses, but also many elements like accessories and her suitcases. We also had some elements of lingerie belonging to Marlene that wasn’t usually exhibited, and we had also some documents, like bills from the House of Dior, where you see she has ordered perfume or accessories. There was one very interesting thing in all these elements, with the label of Dior, there were also stockings and bras, but among these things there were masculine pajamas that were made for men, and she was using them for [herself]. It was interesting for the story, because we know that she liked very much to be dressed up as a man with costumes. We also have telegrams with conversations between her and Christian Dior and you could see that they were close friends.

Which movie star was closest to Christian Dior?

Certainly her. She had a special position because she was considered a close friend. We know this for sure because she was part of the close friends who were invited to his house outside of Paris, in Milly-la-Forêt, where he had this very nice farm house, where he spent the weekends, and it was very private. He met Marlene through Jean Cocteau.

How did his costume design experience enhance his ability to dress movie stars?

He was rather prepared to do this by the fact that he had this natural taste towards the idea of inventing costumes for theater and cinema. He had a taste for magnificent dresses…. The dress must be extravagant, but not too much because the women inside is more important than the dress. But together it helps, you have drapery, you have movements, you have effects, many things that help them to behave like stars. We can say perhaps all his collections are built like this. You are somebody special with a Dior dress. You have a woman who is like a princess, who is like a flower. All these things are connected with the idea of a star in Hollywood.

Who is the brand’s modern-day star?

Marion Cotillard. I think she is very typical of the idea of Dior young woman. The choice of dresses she has for her different appearances at Cannes, or somewhere else. I think she really is somebody who is very connected with the whole story of Dior. This woman who is beautiful but who has character. She’s not a doll. She’s a strong character, as Charlize Theron, and Sharon Stone — this type of woman — strong. She’s not just pretty, she has a character.

How important are celebrity clients to the success of a designer?

Certainly today it is important, you can see it’s one of the main subjects everywhere in the media, in magazines, everywhere. It’s a great interest for many readers, but during the time of Dior, it was different, [but] of course it was important. The stars were really stars, they were treated like this, but let’s say for a haute couture house, it was not a main point. Mr. Dior was interested by this, but we know that he was asked to do many movies and very often he said no. He said yes when he liked the movie director, the actress, or the subject. For him the most important [thing] was the life of the house and the clients. He had so much to do it was difficult to answer the demands of the movie industry.

How has the designer-celebrity relationship evolved from Christian Dior’s time?

I think in the ’40s and ’50s it was not organized as today. Now the career [of] the actress is organized on the same level as which film she will do and where she will appear, and which events with which dress. The actresses have advisors, stylists who are working with them. Everything is much more organized, conceived, produced – in those days it was not like this, not at all. You see by some documents from Dior that they organized some things, but it’s not as today. It’s not like an orchestra where everything is planned in advance. Of course there are some examples where we know the fact that a movie was used to create a subject for the press, but there are not so many examples from the ’30s and ’40s.

Which dress is your favorite?

Two dresses, on a totally different scale. They are two directions, very interesting in the way you can build the image of a star. One direction would be simplicity. An example is the suit – a jacket and a skirt – called “Pom Pom,” ordered by Rita Hayworth. It belonged to the first collection of Christian Dior in the summer of 1947. It was one of the two main silhouettes of the collection. The silhouette is very narrow on the body, very thin. It’s black, it’s very pure. It was ordered by Rita Hayworth, who was seated at the front row of the very first fashion show. You can wear it today. It’s very simple without any decoration, just the line and the purity of the line. On the other hand, there is the custom dress that Charlize Theron is wearing in the 2011 advertising for the perfume J’Adore. Everybody likes it because it’s a dress of gold. It’s like a rain of gold on the body. It’s a dress of light, of sun, and it’s very light. The technique is incredible because it’s made of tulle with this embroidery made as a rain on the body. It’s the idea of a nude body just dressed up with a rain of gold sequins.

“Stars in Dior,” $65 at rizzoliusa.com.

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NEW YORK — Galleries in Chelsea's art district continue to pick up the pieces after the devastating storm surge that accompanied Hurricane Sandy last week, inundating the area under several feet of water from the nearby Hudson River. Recovery raises a tangling web of issues, from navigating insurance claims to replacing records destroyed by the flood waters. Today, gallerist Stephen Haller was kind enough to give ARTINFO a walk through his West 26th street space, to offer a glimpse of the work still to be done.

To see our interview with Stephen Haller, click on the video below:

Pepsi is bestowing Ferran Adrià, the molecular gastronomy mastermind behind the shuttered restaurant El Bulli, with his own soda can. The chef partook in the company’s Madrid conference, “El Ser Creativo, Congreso de Mentes Brillantes,” earlier this week along with 20 other leaders in the fields of food, science, and technology. According to Eater, six of the brightest minds, including Adrià, Kukuxumusu artist Mikel Urmeneta, scientist and explorer Angela Posada-Swafford, evolutionary psychologist Nancy Segal, paleontologist Jack Horner, and robotics pioneer Dennis Hong got their own image emblazoned on a limited-edition Pepsi can. The special cans were raffled off in a Twitter competition during the two-day event. So does this mean we’ll be seeing a lot of Pepsi at Pakta, the eatery Adrià and his brother Albert Adrià are opening in Barcelona this January?

EMERGING is a regular column where ARTINFO spotlights an up-and-coming artist.

You may be more likely to encounter Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels’s atmospheric installations in a ruined building (she participated in the acclaimed 2011 installation “The Music Box” in New Orleans) or an abandoned convent (“Sequence of Waves,” also 2011, in Greenpoint) than a gallery. Yet no matter the location, her work converts the space it inhabits into a strange new world. “I’m interested in sculpting environments, and playing with how specific qualities of constructed environments create experiential constructs for the people in them,” Fels told ARTINFO. “I like to make sculptures people can touch, where you can get inside a sculpture’s mood.”

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1982, the Brooklyn-based artist double majored in social psychology and political science at Stanford University before taking courses in metalsmithing at the Appalachian Center for Craft and art at Columbia University. She also lived in Brazil on and off during school, and spent two years in Melbourne, Australia, her mom’s home country. The large-scale sculptures she has come to make are assembled from wood discarded from construction sites or salvaged from the remains of demolished houses, giving the installations, which range from geometric studies to full-scale tree houses or candlelit shacks, the impression that they’ve been there for decades. Floorboards, lath from drywall, and worn wood faded with peeling paint are all “gold” to Fels.

The focus on reclaiming tossed away materials, and siting installations in locations that have been equally rejected, represents Fels's interest in “places that feel placeless.” For her current residency at Clocktower Gallery in New York, she is building an installation in one of the project spaces based on the otherworldly Crystal Cavern of Mexico, a dense chamber deep underground full of towering milky crystals, as unreal as something Jules Verne would have imagined for “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (the natural wonder was discovered in 2000 and remains a mystery due to its extreme heat). The environment — which builds on an earlier show at New Orleans's Parse Gallery— will evolve throughout its run, as the artist adds crystals and collaborates with musician and performance artist VnessWolfChild and audio engineer Terence Caulkins on a soundscape.

The collaborative aspect of much of her art was part of what interested Clocktower, which supports artists who experiment with blurring the edges of their work. “From my very first encounter with Serra at an audio-themed art show at St. Cecilia’s [in Brooklyn], to her recent participation in an amazing audio installation project in New Orleans called ‘The Music Box,’ she has been consistently exploring these overlaps,” Joe Ahearn, curator of performance and installation at Clocktower, explained to ARTINFO.

To see images of work by Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels, click on the slideshow.

Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels: “Crystal Cavern” opens at Clocktower Gallery, 108 Leonard Street, 13th Floor, New York, on November 13, 2012.

Looks like it is the season of CKD operations. Just a couple of weeks back we reported about Jaguar’s aggressive plans with the XF and now our friends at IndianCarsBikes report that the British automaker has commenced CKD operations of the XF 3.0-litre...

In an era when you can order “bespoke” suits over the Internet, and everything from an iPhone to a fragrance can be personalized, the concept of customization gets a bit watered down. However, that doesn’t mean the trend is on the wane. Take Vacheron Constantin’s recently completed 891-component, 17-complication Vladimir watch, with its white gold guilloche-paneled dial and 12 zodiac signs hand-carved about the flanks of a burly 18-karat pink gold case. Four years in the making for an undisclosed owner, the Vladimir is the ultimate one-upping of the brand’s iconic $1.6 million Tour de l’ile 250th anniversary model. It also serves as the ultimate calling card for the company’s ever-growing special-order service, Atelier Cabinotiers, which was launched in 2006 to meet high demand.

“The Tour de l’ile was the most complicated watch in the world at the time, but the owner of the Vladimir wanted one more complication,” says Vacheron’s North American president, Hugues de Pins. In his airy Fifth Avenue office, fresh off a trip to Dallas, where he helped inaugurate the North American Institute of Swiss Watchmaking (NAIOSW), de Pins holds forth on another recent Atelier specimen, Philosophia, through which the owner wanted to express his laissez-faire joie de vivre. The end result is a surprisingly simple, exactitude-skewering, moon-faced tourbillon without a minute hand (though the exact time can be heard via minute repeater). And as if that weren’t enough, an American customer is currently awaiting the arrival of the most complicated pocket watch in history. At Atelier, the question is not how much are you willing to spend, but how far you can push their team — a master watchmaker, guillocheur, enameler, gemsetter, engraver, and their attendant artisans — who work in a secret, light-flooded, invite-only room unknown to most employees at the firm’s Geneva headquarters. Atelier deals with some 30 projects at any one time, so you might think of it as the DARPA lab of the watchmaking universe.

While Vacheron eagerly tests the outer boundaries of the complication realm, they draw the line on aesthetics, ensuring they conform to house standards. “If you’re a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys, and you want a helmet on your dial, we might ask you to rethink that and try to suggest some different ideas and maybe do a star somewhere,” jokes de Pins, noting that Atelier sends customers video and photo updates of their watches during the multiyear design and build process.

In this growing field, the custom concept exists on a sliding scale. Changing dials, metals, and movements is one thing, but a totally unique watch — built from the ground up with its own aesthetic profile and inimitable complications — is the Everest summit for the most rarefied of collectors, or what Benjamin Clymer, founder of the industry watchdog blog Hodinkee, calls the “nano-segment” of the industry. Not only do you need to be a “friend” of Vacheron — or Patek Philippe or any other top firm — even to make this type of ask, you have to petition the watchmaker as to why you deserve such a special-order commission, which can take upwards of five years to complete. Clymer recalls that a friend of his spent 12 years on the waiting list for a watch by Philippe Dufour, widely considered the top independent watchmaker in the world, who got his start restoring 19th- and early 20th-century pocket watches.

Dufour, unlike his contemporaries, doesn’t actually make unique watches. “Some people ask me, ‘Could you do this? Or this? Or this?’” he explains. “I say, ‘Of course I could, but I’m not going to do it because it’s not going to be my watch anymore.’ I say, ‘Okay, I’ll do it and put your name on it.’ They say, ‘No, I want a Philippe Dufour.’ And I say, ‘But it’s not a Philipee Dufour.’ I make my model, and if people like it, they order it.”

In fact, the only unique timepiece Dufour ever made was his first, a 19-line minute repeater grande sonnerie pocket watch, which he tried to market but couldn’t because he wasn’t a known quantity in the early ’80s. After friends suggested working for a brand, he sold the design to Audemars Piguet, who ordered five watches, which took him three years to complete. Then he went back to his Swiss studio and emerged two and a half years later with a historic grande et petite sonnerie wristwatch model, made in an edition of six, one of which fetched nearly $620,000 at a sale of important watches at Sotheby’s Hong Kong this past April. Still, Dufour won’t relent to market pressures. “I refuse orders every week for Simplicity because my production is not big enough,” says Dufour, referring to his most recent model, which just closed out with its 200th example in September. Adhering to the name, the wristwatch comes with three case choices (platinum, white gold, or pink gold), two dials (white gold dial with Roman numerals or guilloche in gray or white), and a relatively modest price range, from $54,000 to $68,000.

Dufour is currently planning to launch a new wristwatch from his two-person workshop next year. “I don’t like to talk about it until I’m finished, but in terms of complications it’s between the grande sonnerie and Simplicity.” Even the most well connected of collectors can expect four-year waits out of the gate.

“Today everybody thinks it’s all about money, but it’s not. It’s about understanding what the watchmaker wants to express through his watches,” explains Geoffroy Ader, European head of watches at Sotheby’s in Geneva, which rarely sees these one-offs at auction. That said, Sotheby’s is pressing further into the vein of independent watchmakers — and the exclusivity associated with them. Its biggest get is the landmark George Daniels Horological Collection sale on November 6 in London. On the heels of the wildly successful Graves Fullerton Collection in June — featuring the best of banker-collector Henry Graves Jr.’s special orders that shouldered Patek Philippe through World War I — the Daniels Collection is, in Ader’s estimation, one of three top watch sales in the auction house’s history, on par with the 1999 Masterpieces from the Time Museum sale that realized what is still the highest price for any timepiece at auction, with the Graves Super complication pocket watch fetching $11 million.

Known as the godfather of independent watchmaking, George Daniels more or less saved the industry in the late 1960s and ’70s with completely handmade watches, just 37 in total (excluding prototypes), that have become the holy grail for collectors. Not merely aesthetic wonders, these watches feature innovative escapements — like the coaxial, which was later adopted by Omega — that averted the impending demise of mechanical watches at the hands of the increasingly popular quartz movement.

“When George Daniels made his watches, he sold them to the people he thought could appreciate his work, so it was really about, ‘How do I envision horology and do the people I’m going to sell this watch to understand my philosophy?’” explains Ader of the master, who passed away last fall at his home on the Isle of Man. “It’s really the genesis of independent watchmaking, and he’s a genius, so we’ll have a lot of interest from new customers in emerging countries.”

Daniels’s best-known protégé, fellow Isle of Man resident Roger W. Smith, is just one of many indies—including Bart and Tim Grönefeld; Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey; François-Paul Journe; Peter Speake-Marin; Kari Voutilainen; and the elder statesman, Dufour — sparking a serious interest among collectors looking for time pieces they literally can’t find anywhere else. Interest, however, doesn’t always equate with higher market values.

Antiquorum watch specialist Nate Borgelt puts it a bit more broadly, comparing the market to custom furniture or art commissions. “These watches are very costly and normally do not bring near their original price on the secondary market because of the personal connections that one has with a commissioned piece,” Borgelt says. “Custom watches will always have a niche market, but it comes down to the brand and exclusivity. Some pieces do go up in value, and the main factor in this is brand name: It is far more difficult to get a custom watch from Patek Philippe than from the majority of other companies. Brands such as Dufour, Grönefeld, and Smith already have such limited production runs that each watch is in its own way unique and custom.”

Like most of his peers, Smith, who found his calling after meeting Daniels in a college course, can make only 10 editions per year of his Series 2 production model, which offers material and engraving options, at a cost of $130,000 to $180,000. Though they haven’t appeared on the auction block yet, these models have already traded hands privately at a profit. His uniques, which can take three years to finish and run up to 10 times the price, aren’t in circulation.

“The unique pieces are really what I learned from George. I just wanted to make watches by hand in his way. That overall approach, where just one person sits down and makes the watch, is our appeal,” says Smith, who is currently 18 months into a unique special order that will take at least another 12 months to finish. “There are limiting factors though, because I have to like the watch and will only make it to my design and style. I’m not a great fan of overcomplicated watches because the more you complicate them the less reliable they become. I want to make watches that will last for generations; I’m interested in the long-term approach.”

De Pins agrees that longevity is the key to success for this rare breed. And while he has great respect for the independents, he wonders about their customers down the road. “There are other excellent watchmakers and niche companies, but who knows in 100 years if there will be somebody at this company and if the company will still exist,” he says, juxtaposing Vacheron’s two-and-a-half centuries in business — and its commitment to legacy maintenance through the sponsorship of institutes like the NAIOSW in Dallas — against the artifact status of the Daniels collection. “When you spend this amount of time and money, you want to make sure this timepiece will cross the generations.”

While customer service is important, the ultimate bond is between the client and the individual timepiece. So why should the Danielses and Dufours of the world matter at all? Ader answers, “These people ask, ‘Can I go beyond the limits?’ And that is the definition of an artist.”

Published in Art+Auction, November 2012.

NEW YORK — Veteran fair organizer Sanford L. Smith is back at the Park Avenue Armory this year in a new iteration of his annual November art-and-design fair. This time around, following the problematic one-time New York foray of the Pavilion of Art and Design this time last year and the indefinite postponement of Modernism before that, he’s teamed up with French antiques stalwart Syndicat National des Antiquaires, the organization of dealers in highly-prized French antiques behind  the behemoth Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris. The result is Salon: Art + Design, featuring 53 international dealers, 31 of which are members of the Syndicat, it’s proven to be  a show of unprecedented caliber.

For the most part the fair sticks to modern and contemporary works, ranging from about 1890 to the present day. Taking up the same prime real estate as it did this time last year at PAD NY, Paris’s Galerie Downtown greeted visitors to the fair with the mid-century desing people harvested from the Charlotte Perriand house acquired by François Laffanour 20 years ago. A beautiful red staircase by Jean Prouvé immediately catches the eye.

Delving further into history, Kraemer, a Syndicat member and Paris-based family business dating back to 1875, made its New York debut. Expressing the sheer wealth of the Syndicat, they specialize in the very finest 18th-century furnishings, most with exceptional royal provenance. In a novel demonstration of how Empress Catherine the Great’s desk can easily intermingle with contemporary furniture, they’ve set up a small living room of sorts within the Armory, complete with flatscreen TVs projecting family photographs with other inventory. The beforementioned Catherine the Great piece, a beautifully lacquered Roentgen secretary desk designed specifically for the Hermitage palace, will go for undisclosed millions of dollars.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Tribeca-based gallery R 20th Century (who happily report that they were relatively untouched by the recent storms) brought a uniquely contemporary flair to the fair. Alongside vintage stuffed animals by mid-century German toy designer Renate Muller, they’re peddling the action figures of South African artist Michaella Janse van Vuuren, 3-D printed with a sinister twist: One features the head of a vulture with beak agape, complete with flappable wings made of intricately linked chain mail.

Catering to the diverse tastes of the contemporary home decorator, Paris’s Entwistle Gallery represented the ethnographic arts with a collection of African and Oceanic tribal sculptures, the oldest of which was a wooden bust by Mali’s Dogon tribe, carbon-dated from 17th century. Aisle D served as the fair’s zoo, with the dueling menageries of London’s Sladmore Gallery and Paris-based Dumonteil facing each other — both specialize in animal sculpture — with the rabbit-themed works of Francois Petrovitch at the Antoine Laurentin booth further down. The Dumonteil camp wasn’t bothered by the arrangement, citing the different sensibilities the British bring versus that of the French: Sladmore’s epic bronze horse head sculptures by England’s Nic Fiddian-Green (one chemically treated for a handsome turquoise patina dripping down the horse’s neck) took command of their booth. On the French side, Dumonteil’s main attractions were its numerous bronze monkeys, bears, and panthers by Georges-Lucien Guyot.

Galerie Gmurzynska featured an arresting display of Suprematist El Lissiztky’s 1920 Proun portfolio, a wall of stark black, white, and red geometric figures to be sold for $4.5 million. And returning from PAD NY last year is Carpenters Workshop Gallery, the London- and Paris-based dealers whose Buffet Nouvelle Zelande by Vincent DuBourg won the highest honor last year, a spot in the Museum of Art and Design. They were back with more of the characteristically splintered DuBourg pieces — a black desk ominously wrapped in thorny black vines, and a silver bookshelf splayed at its center — but patinated and polished metals ruled the booth. The Netherlands’ Studio Job had rendered two global landmarks in black and bronze, with their own special subversive twists: Their Taj Mahal had been turned upside-down to serve as a side table, while their Eiffel Tower lamp was morosely tilting its head to one side.

The Workshop’s co-fouder Julien Lombrail expressed a bit of worry, given the circumstances of the weather. (The shipment of three pieces, including works by Japanese design powerhouse Nendo, were compromised by Hurricane Sandy, and the snowstorm the night before affected the turnout to the fair’s gala benefit preview). But an hour into the fair’s opening, a steady hum of collectors inquiring about prices and provenances had filled the Armory’s massive drill hall — a good start for the fledgling fair.

Salon: Art & Design runs through November 12 at the Park Avenue Armory. To see highlights from the inaugural fair, click the slideshow. 

While some galleries, artists, and institutions are gradually getting back on their feet after the ravages of Hurricane Sandy, others have a much longer road to recovery. Here, ARTINFO presents a selection of art- and design-related events in the coming days to support the recovery efforts.

* Tonight in Bushwick Making Deals Zine and Trumbull Studio will host RELIEF: Sandy Art Benefit featuring the work of dozens of artists in a silent auction and raffle to benefit New Yorkers affected by Sandy. All proceeds from the night will go to local charities.

* Abstract painter Clintel Steed will donate the entire proceeds from one painting in his show "Aerial Views" — opening tonight at 379 Broome Street — to Rebuild Rockaway and Eyebeam. Fifteen percent of everything else that is sold will also go to hurricane relief efforts.

* On November 11, Brat Pack actress Ally Sheedy and celebrity photographer Mike Ruiz will host a benefit at Industry Bar. All proceeds will go to rebuild part of the flooded drop-in space at Chelsea’s Ali Forney Center, a non-profit offering services and a place to live to homeless LGTBQ teenagers. More details at Instinct Magazine.

* The Blaaahg is hosting a fundraiser on November 11, selling work from over a dozen artists in a silent auction, and collecting necessities that will be distributed through Occupy Sandy. All proceeds from the auction will go to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. 

* Several Brooklyn organizations including Councilwoman Letitia James, the Irondale Ensemble, Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance, 80 Arts Alliance, and Soul of Brooklyn consortium members are joining forces for the Brooklyn loves Brooklyn fundraiser on November 13. The evening includes live music and dance performances by Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Ballet, among others. All proceeds from the event will go to Reaching Out Community Services Food Pantry in Coney Island and the Red Hook Initiative. 

* Fashion incubator Manufacture New York presents a design-centric silent auction and benefit party to support hurricane recovery on November 15. The auction features the work of New York-based independent designers, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the Red Hook Initiative.

* In a collaboration between Mana Contemporary and the Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation work of more than 70 artists will be auctioned at on November 17 at 2x2 – A Benefit for Artists Affected by Sandy. All proceeds go to artists whose livelihoods have been affected by Sandy.

* On November 17, Dumbo’s PowerHouse Arena will host a Sandy Hates Books fundraiser to alleviate some of the tens of thousands of dollars in damage the store and center for literary arts suffered when the East River flooded its space. Many details are yet to come, but readings by Jennifer Egan, Paul Auster, and Joseph O’Neill are on the program.

* Wooster Collective founders Marc and Sara Schiller are cleaning out 15 years worth of collected street art, books, and ephemera and (in the spirit of Martha Rosler?), selling it all at a Hurricane Sandy Yard Sale and Book Launch on November 16 and 17. According to the Schillers, they “won’t be giving money to large organizations like the Red Cross. Rather we will be giving it to local people who have been on the front lines since the lights went out. In this way, we will know that the money is going where it should.”

* In solidarity with areas of the borough upon which Sandy wreaked her havoc, the Queens Museum of Art will hold a fundraiser and open house on November 18. The event includes performances, food, cocktails, film screenings, art-making, and a silent auction. All proceeds will be donated to the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance.

* Non-profit Chelsea establishment The Kitchen was among the hardest hit by Sandy, with estimates to repair their space coming in at between $400,000 and $500,000. Since the space is already dependent on their annual benefit auction for survival, this year's event takes on even more weight. On November 26, The Kitchen will host a reception and silent art auction, with work by over 70 artists ranging from the emerging to highly established.

* Since Sandy hit, MoMA PS1 director Klaus Bisenbach has been rallying the art community around recovery in the Rockaways. This week, he announced that the MoMA PS1 party on December 7 in Miami has been cancelled, and a benefit for Hurricane Sandy will take place instead. Details forthcoming.

Know another art-related Sandy fundraiser? Write to sroffino@artinfo.com.