Artinfo has a brief interview with John Elderfield discussing his new role at Gagosian. One off-hand comment does serve as a reminder of the value and advantage to Gagosian that running these exhibitions offers.

Having a curator of Elderfield’s stature organizing shows will attract and flatter even the most confident collector. So when, Elderfield says this:

“I’m also going to be intrigued to see whether lenders feel differently about lending to different kinds of institutions.”

We can safely decode it as, it will be interesting to see whether collectors will want to lend to me for Gagosian’s show knowing full well that it increases the likelihood of receiving a call from Gagosian’s organization some day when they have a buyer for my work whether I’m interested in selling it or not.

The interview goes on to outline what other work Elderfield is engaged in at the moment:

Though Elderfield currently serves as a consultant to the online art search engine Art.sy and advises one very lucky couple on their art collection (he won’t say who), he doesn’t plan to take on too much additional work. “I want to get established at the gallery and get a sense of how many projects of real interest there are to do. And knowing Larry, there are going to be lots of them.”

“We Go To Concerts Together”: John Elderfield on His New Life Working With Larry Gagosian (Artinfo)

The Times’s Randy Kennedy has fished out of the court papers concerning the lawsuit between Jan Cowles and Gagosian Gallery an email that will not soon be forgotten. Just to remind you, Gagosian sold two works for Cowles’s son Charles who was in need of money. One was a Mark Tansey that had been partially gifted to the Met. There was already a lawsuit over that work. The other was an Lichtenstein Girl with a Mirror that Gagosian had estimated he could get $3m for since another version had sold publicly for $4m shortly before.

Eventually the work was sold for $2m and Gagosian told Charles that it was priced so low because the work was damaged. That might indeed have been the case. Sure Gagosian would have preferred to sell the work for more money not less. Whatever the facts, the email that Kennedy quotes in the Times makes it clear that Gagosian’s buyer needed some coaxing:

But by 2009, according to the e-mails, the gallery had offered the painting for considerably less to a collector, Thompson Dean, a managing partner of a private equity firm, telling Mr. Dean that he had an opportunity to get an incredible bargain. “Seller now in terrible straits and needs cash,” said a July e-mail to Mr. Dean from a Gagosian staff member. “Are you interested in making a cruel and offensive offer? Come on, want to try?”

As outrageous as the quote seems, it is clear that getting anyone to offer on the picture was taking some real work on the gallery’s part. Dean was obviously reluctant.

Frank E-Mails Reveal Negotiations at Art Gallery (New York Times)

Sarah Douglas and Matt Chaban of the New York Observer combine their encyclopedic knowledge of Larry Gagosian and New York real estate to offer a comprehensive look at Gagosian’s real estate portfolio—and history. They make an excellent case that the art dealer’s homes, vacation homes and galleries reveal his deal-making playbook. They also offer this throwaway observation about Gagosian’s steely nerves and willingness to out-trade even the toughest of counter-parties.

The pair reveal that the art dealer made more than six times his money buying his Chelsea Gallery from the Gambinos:

consider Mr. Gagosian’s savvy purchase, in 1999, of the West 24th Street building that now houses his gallery there. He bought it from the Gambino family for $5.75 million. In 2007, it was estimated to be valued at around $40 million, with air rights.

Larry Gagosian’s Real Estate Wheelings and Dealings (NY Observer)

Not long ago, Larry Gagosian bought Gary Cooper’s old house in Los Angeles. J. Christopher Flowers, the private equity investor in banks, isn’t quite as glamorous as Cooper but his ill-fated Upper East Side private home is. The mansion was once owned by Jacqui Safra who sold it to Flowers for $53m. Flowers subsequently got divorced and decided to take a loss on the property. Enter Gagosian. The New York Post says that he just bought the place:

Gagosian has just closed on the HarknessMansion, the more than 20,000-square-foot townhouse at 4 E. 75th St., for $36.5 million. That might sound like a high price, but it’s actually a stunning $16.5 million less than what private equity titan J. Christopher Flowers paid for the 50-foot-wide townhouse in 2006.

Art of the Deal (NY Post)

Patch reports a worker at Larry Gagosian’s East End house–built for Francois de Menil by Charles Gwathmey–caused a fire that damaged three rooms and rendered the house uninhabitable for the time beaing:

Amagansett Fire Department Chief Mark Bennett said a caretaker, who was at the house, even ran out of the house at 424 Further Lane with two paintings for safe keeping.

The fire started when a plumber was soldering pipe behind a refrigerator on Tuesday evening, Bennett and East Hampton Town Chief Fire Marshal David Browne said on Wednesday morning. Browne said there was ongoing work being done on the estate, on one of the most exclusive blocks in the Hamptons. [...] A worker inside the house called 911 at 8:50 p.m., according to East Hampton Town police. [Read more...]