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 The Two Bernies
Untitled Document
| Spring begins on 81st Street and Central Park West. Photo: JH. 2:30 PM. |
March 16, 2009. Gray Sunday it was, not cold. Brown. Gray. Dull. I went over to the corner of East End and Gracie Square to take a picture of the forsythia just inside the gate of Carl Schurz Park.
Just beginning to bloom I thought it would a beautiful way to advertise the coming springtime. Sort of. Needs some sunshine here and there, however. |
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| The branches of forsythia buds gracing East End Avenue in Carl Schurz Park. |
"Gold has worked down from Alexander's time ... When something holds good for two thousand years I do not believe it can be so because of prejudice or mistaken theory."
— Bernard M. Baruch
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| Sir Winston Churchill in Mr. Baruch's limousine with the man himself. |
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Bernie Then and Now. I came upon that quote and was reminded of another man who was known far and wide and made his fortune on Wall Street only to go on to distinguished public life. Bernard Baruch was a household name in America through the 1960s. In folklore-like terms he was famous for giving advice to powerful people while sitting on a park bench either in Lafayette Park across from the White House or in Central Park where he was often photographed sitting and giving sage (it was assumed) advice.
Born in 1870 in South Carolina, his father was a physician who in the Civil War served General Robert E. Lee. When he was eleven, the Baruchs moved to New York where his mother’s family lived. By the late 1890s, the boy, not yet thirty, having graduated from CCNY, made a fortune as a broker and owned a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
Known as Bernie or Barney to his legions of friends and acquaintances all over the world, he referred to himself professionally as a “speculator” – a Wall Street term now defunct but a helluva lot more honest than some of the titles which succeeded it. Mr. Baruch sometimes would explain that the world “speculator” came from the Latin speculari, meaning “to observe.” That was, he believed, his strong card in life. He tended to self-modesty when it came to talking about his great business success.
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| Bernard Baruch appeared on the cover of TIME three times. |
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By the 1910s he was one of the most powerful men on Wall Street. In the 19-teens he became a supporter and then adviser to President Woodrow Wilson. It was a role he continued in the 1930s when Franklin Roosevelt was President from the early days of the Great Depression through World War II.
After the war it was he coined the term “Cold War” in a speech. He also served on the first United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, appointed by President Truman. When he was 90 he was commemorated with a park bench bearing his name in Lafayette Park. He died shortly before his 95th birthday in 1965.
Today in New York, we have another Bernie, another kind of Bernie. The weekend brought the news that Bernie Madoffs’ assets have been assessed at more than $800 million. Well, it makes sense that he’d have that kind of dough. After all, he stole billions. Also in the news, Mrs. Ruth Madoff has assets of something like $90 million and the feds are closing in on locking it up. Until further notice.
The local newspapers also said that Bernie didn’t want to stay in jail. No kidding; who would, would you? After all those penthouses, oceanside villas, yachts and private jets, a jail cell is an awful bring down. One of the papers said his lawyer was trying to get him out until the sentencing. Uh-huh, and then what? |
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By end of the 22nd European Fine Art Fair, they will have used 250,000 flowers in total. |
Meanwhile there was some good news for the markets in the world. Over in Maastricht, Netherlands, the 22nd European Fine Art Fair opened.
This is the greatest art fair in the world and the largest -- grand in size and in presentation. They will have used 250,000 flowers before the show is finished, and god knows how many cases of champagne will have been quaffed.
“This show makes your eyes happy,” so saith Wendy Moonan who was covering it for the New York Times. The Times’ resident connoisseur, Wendy, who has seen it all, says it all. Last year TEFAF drew almost 75,000 visitors and this year they expect even more before it’s over, even though have raised the prices. The opening day had several thousand guests. This year there are 269 exhibitors (the most ever) in the convention center which is the size of six football fields.
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Goedhuis: A large shrine (Shenchu)
Elm wood with tiled roof
135 x 43 cm
China, Shanxi Province, Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) |
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Whether you ’re a connoisseur or collector or just a lover of art and antiquities, The fair is like visiting a museum where you can look at everything but where everything is for sale – so there's a buzz in the air. And none of the stuffiness and “don’t get near it” approach that you get in a museum.
Because of the financial state of the world right now, there was trepidation among the most practical about this year’s business. Although that was soon dissolved. Michel Cox Witmer, the only American on the TEFAF board, said that they’d realistically gone in with lower expectations at the opening but that “the exhibitors did shockingly well. Sales were drastically higher than (the opening days) this time last year.”
Last year was one of the most successful in the Fair’s 21-year history and there is the strong possibility this year’s totals will exceed it. There was no more room at the airport for the private jets. The hotels were booked solid. The crowds came from all over Euope. Buyers were American, English and Europeans. Not as noticeable this year were the Chinese or Russians buyers.
There were museum curators and trustees from 25 countries including the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the Met in New York, the Shanghai Art Museum, the National Gallery in Washington, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Tate Britain, the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and MoMA in New York. Both the latter and the Louvre made purchases this year on opening day.
New York’s Sperrone-Westwater Gallery made two big sales on the first day: Evan Penny and Yann Worst. Angela Westwater was “very happy. The sales have been extraordinary although I’ve noticed fewer Americans than previous years.” |
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The food court at TEFAF |
TEFAF is the most important fair in the world for Old Masters: paintings, drawings and prints with at least 75 specialist dealers in this field coming from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and the US as well as the UK. Many believe that more and more collectors are turning to Old Masters from classical modern and contemporary art, not least because it is one area of the market which is showing stability.
Among this year’s offerings are: Lucas Cranach the Elder’s impressive “David and Bathsheba” of 1534, and a rare religious painting by Frans Hals, a “St Mark” from a set of Four Evangelists which had originally belonged to Catherine the Great. Both are priced between €5m and €6m.
Also there is “A still-life of flowers in a blue and white vase” by Jan Brueghel The Elder, another Flemish master to travel to Italy, this time 1589-96. His patron was Cardinal Federico Borromeo, for whom he painted some of the earliest known independent flower pieces. All of his flower specimens, many of them rarities, were “made after nature,” meticulously observed and rendered using fine stippled brushstrokes, but few of those presented in his bouquets would ever have been in bloom at the same time. An oil on panel in immaculate condition, this well-travelled bouquet, painted around 1606-8, is now offered by Johnny Van Haeften for around £4m.
Our correspondent Roger Webster was there with the NYSD Digital to catch a glimpse for you. |
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| Flowers everywhere, even the antique kind at Piva & C (above, left). |
| 17th century Imperial Porcelain Amphoro vases lent by The Heritage decorate the entrance foyer. |
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Above, l. to r.: Wendy Moonan; Dr. Dino Rivero; Irma Jansen and Barbara Veldkamp.
Left: Galerie Sanct Lucas |
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Above, l. to r.: KUNSTHANDEL FRANS LEIDELMEIJER; G. Sarti, Paris.
Right: L'Arc en Seine. |
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Above, l. to r.: Vanderven & Vanderven; Galerie Odermatt-Vedovi.
Left: Adrian Sassoon. |
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Above, l. to r.: Johnny van Haeften; "Butcher Boy" by Chaim Soutine for sale at $12.5 million at Galerie Thomas.
Left: Fabrizio Moetti, Bernard Wientjes, and Titia Vallenga. |
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Above, l. to r.: Landau Fine Art; Jan Krugier & Cie.
Left: Robilant + Voena. |
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Above, l. to r.: Cesare Lampronti; Hopins Custot.
Left: Thomas Herzog and Walter Senger. |
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| Jacques de la Béraudière. |
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Above, l. to r.: Rob Smeets; Ann Nitze.
Left: Pelham. |
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Above, l. to r.: Angela Westwater of Sperone Westwater among "Male Stretch, a variation" by Evan Penny and a work by Yann Worst.
Right: Jack Kilgore and Otto Naumann. |
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| Michel Witmer with TEFAF's Xiao Ling (center) and a group of VIP Chinese journalists. |
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Above, l. to r.: Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Whitlock from the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Franck Laverdin.
Right: Alastair Crawford. |
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| Carroll Thibaut-Pomerantz. |
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Above, l. to r.: Harris Lindsay; Kukje Gallery and Tina Kim Gallery.
Left: Les Enluminures. |
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