In late 2005, when mega-collector Eli Broad shelled out $23.8 million for a major David Smith sculpture, “Cubi XXVII” (1965) at a Sotheby’s evening contemporary sale — nearly twice the $12-million high estimate — the purchase marked the end of a decade-long quest. As Broad explained in his memoir, “The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking” (John Wiley & Sons, 2012), he had been pining for a Smith sculpture since 1994. That year, a different “Cubi” had come up for auction. “When the price went above $4 million — too high by my estimate — I dropped out,” Broad writes. “As the years passed, I regretted it. Smith made only 28 of the towering stainless steel pieces, and all but three already were in museums. I had underestimated both the piece’s rarity and the escalation in prices the contemporary art market would undergo.”
Of the 2005 acquisition, Broad writes, “I was determined to get it. Even so, I maintained my discipline and went into the sales room with a top price — $25 million — in my head. I got the piece for $23.8 million [including premium], which was the highest price ever paid at the time for a contemporary work of art at auction.” Eight years later it remains the highest price ever paid for a David Smith sculpture at auction. (The next highest, paid for a smaller piece at Sotheby’s in May 2012, is $4.6 million, a $20 million difference that attests to the rarity of major Smith works available for purchase.)
In the years since, the contemporary art market has only continued to skyrocket (apart from the brief dip of 2008-2009, when the global economic crisis finally seemed to reign in spending on art for a few consecutive seasons). As the art world prepares for another blockbuster series of contemporary art auctions this week, we wondered what other missed acquisition opportunities continue to haunt the world’s big collectors in the superheated contemporary market. What’s an art lover to do when a multimillion (or -billion) dollar bank account is not enough to get the work you want? So we asked top collectors about “the one that got away.” Why was the work so important, and what happened to make it slip out of their grasp? And, perhaps most important — how did they cope?
Yvonne Force Villareal
In 1995, Yvonne Force Villareal started an eponymous art consulting firm and, in addition to helping build several clients’ collections, she started to buy a few works for herself whenever possible. “It was a different time in the art world,” she said. “Hardly anyone was buying, and the only way to view a work was at a gallery or an artist’s studio. My weeks consisted of seeing every show I possibly could in New York (which did not take nearly as long since it was before the Chelsea gallery boom), and looking at slides and printouts of international exhibitions.”
On one expedition, in 1997, her eye was caught by Takashi Murakami’s “Miss ko2” (1997) a lifesize sculpture made of oil paint, acrylic, fiberglass and iron at Feature Gallery. I was both shocked and delighted. My fascination grew as I circled the work. I had seen a few of Murakami’s paintings at Emmanuel Perrotin and was already intrigued by the artist, however this 3D work of a blonde animated figure blew me away.”
She continued: “I asked for the price — today you might ask if it is available first, but back then almost everything was — and it was $25,000. I was on the brink of purchasing 'Miss ko2,' but I noticed a small piece of nylon string that attached to the ceiling to help hold her weight. At the time I felt that the sculpture should have been completely freestanding.”
Later, she said, she wondered, “how could I have made such a decision based on an insignificant nylon thread! This is a Tokyo Pop masterpiece. Once the boom started and thousands of collectors started to buy ravenously, I had to screw my head on tight and realize that the art and artists are what’s important, and if a market supports it then it is healthy.”
“You cannot let regret ever get you—even though so many of the works I passed on increased in value 100 times over,” Force Villareal said. “I frequently reflect on all of the extraordinary work I bought during those years of opportunity — Lisa Yuskavage, Rudolf Stingel, and Adam McEwen to name a few. I know that if I keep my finger on the pulse, more opportunities lie ahead.
Peter Hort
Tom Otterness, "Free Speech," 2008 / Courtesy Phillips
For Peter Hort, a New York-based contemporary collector known for his affinity for social media, “it was a Tom Otterness piece called ‘Free Speech.’ It was really beautiful. Everything about it. The idea, the sentiment. I liked the piece itself. And I missed my opportunity.”
The 2008 sculpture sold at Phillips in April for $21,250 at Phillips in April. The gallery that had it was holding it and then decided to sell it at auction. “I was adamant that I liked it. It went for more than either of us were willing to pay.”
Hort, who thought he had accurately sized up the potential pool of competitors, noted ruefully that “people purchased it sight unseen, I’m fairly certain sight unseen. I know a few people who were bidding on it that hadn’t seen it, hadn’t touched it — it was a bronze piece. So people do — people will buy something just by an image.”
Howard Rachofsky
Pino Pascali, "Muro di pietra (Pietra pietra) Wall of stone (Stone stone)," 1964 / Christie's Images LTD.
Dallas-based Howard Rachofsky is widely considered one of the most influential art collectors in the world. Currently, his private exhibition space in Dallas, The Warehouse, is the site of a much-lauded show, “Parallel Views: Italian and Japanese Art from the 1950s, 60s and 70s,” largely culled from works in his own collection.
Rachofsky recently tried to buy Pino Pascali’s “Muro di pietra (Pietra pietra) Wall of stone (Stone stone)” (1964), a fabric on canvas that was offered at Christie’s London at its “Italian Sale” in early October. The piece was estimated at £400,000 to £600,000 ($640,000–$963,000), but wound up selling to someone else for more than double that at £1.65 million ($2.6 million).
“I was willing to bid almost double the estimate, Rachofsky said. “It would have been the perfect companion to another Arte Povera work I own, by Jannis Kounellis. But I ran into a bidding war and finished a way, way distant third.”
“This is a collecting interest I have been pursuing for 15 years,” he continued. “This is the second time something like this has happened, the other one was three years ago when I attempted to buy a major Pascali floor piece that I assumed there would be less competition for — at 15-by-8 meters it can be difficult for people to house. I lost out on that and it was obvious who I lost out to when I saw the work at her collection in Venice — Miuccia Prada. I don’t know who bought this one but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was her. She collects in depth.” (The Prada Foundation did not reply to a request for comment.)
The takeaway?
“I collect in sort of the old fashioned way, a little bit at a time. If I miss something this time, there is always something else to come along, and it’s usually a blessing in the end. My best hope is that the Italians go to sleep on their own material. You also have to be pragmatic: bidding beyond what is a fair price — irrespective of whether you have the resources — is just sort of a mindless exercise that turns into trophy hunting. It doesn’t mean anything to build a collection that way… except bragging rights.”
Lisa Perry
Fashion designer and collector Lisa Perry remembers bidding on “a beautiful ’60s red and yellow Ellsworth Kelly painting” at Sotheby’s recently, and failing to buy it.
“Soon after,” she said, “I was asked to loan a work to MoMA for a show of Ellsworth’s ‘Chatham’ paintings. It would be the first time since the ’60s that all of the works from that series would hang together, so of course I said yes. But — what would that do? It would leave a big empty wall in the middle of my living room and I didn’t like that idea very much at all. The solution was to get Ellsworth or MoMA to loan us a work for the duration of the show. I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask, so I did. Sure enough, sweet Ellsworth came through with a gorgeous red painting from his studio, and since I had just lost the one at auction I decided to buy the loaner! The Chatham painting had a beautiful run at MoMA and is now back in the living room, and the new red painting hangs above my bed and makes me smile whenever I look at.”
Eli Broad
Jeff Wall, "Dead Troops Talk," 1992 / Christie's Images LTD. 2013
Fortunately for Broad, he recovered from his latest near-miss much faster than he did in the case of the David Smith. In May 2012, Broad and his chief curator Joanne Heyler, attended a Christie’s preview where they looked at a Jeff Wall photographic lightbox, “Dead Troops Talk” (1992). “The work is of monumental scale for a photographic lightbox, and its subject matter is tough, addressing the Afghan War of the 1980s,” Broad said. “We consider it one of Wall’s most important works. The night of the sale, I was a bit too disciplined and wound up the underbidder when the work sold for $3.6 million — a record price for the artist. I immediately regretted missing this work and within 48 hours, Joanne was in conversation with Jeff’s New York dealer, Marian Goodman, about how to secure another work in the edition. And within days, the deal was done. We have five works by Wall in the Broad collections, and our newest acquisition is the most significant.”
Additional reporting by Rozalia Jovanovic.
