Oops. I Left My Millions at Home. An interloper investigates Sothebys +
Take, for instance, the bearded 20-something gentleman who was standing next to me at the Sothebys preview. We were both marveling at Andy Warhols portrait of Liz Taylor, being sold by Steven A. Cohen, the head of SAC Capital Advisors, the firm that days earlier had agreed to pay the United States government $1.2 billion in fines for insider trading. The painting is noteworthy for its fluorescent chartreuse background and the overripeness of Ms. Taylors carmine lips. I posited, Youd almost have to be gay to have that in your house.
He smiled and said, Or it would make you gay.
At the Christies brunch, upon meeting Capucine Milliot, the auction houses thin, stylish 30-something vice president, head of communications, postwar and contemporary art, I exclaimed, Ive always wanted to meet someone named Capucine! Do your close friends call you Capn? Ms. Milliot replied, Its Capu, usually.
I also chatted up a young woman at the Christies brunch about the irony of someone potentially spending $5 million on Warhols portrait of the founder of the Peoples Republic of China. Just then, an older European woman, seeing that the younger woman and I were standing on copper tiles on the gallery floor, pointed at the tiles and asked, Its art?
The younger woman said, Yes. Its by Carl Andre. 100 Copper Square. Youre allowed to walk on it. Forming a moue with her mouth, the older woman said, Id rather not and then swerved as if avoiding an overzealous dachshund.
It was also heartening to find that bidders seemingly didnt care whether I was at the auctions in order to bid or not. In Christies jampacked reception area before Tuesdays sale, an elegant bidder in her 60s asked me, Do you collect?
Anxious not to be perceived as an interloper in these rarefied climes, I told her, Mostly Im going through a period of deaccession now. Im heavy in mixed-media, found-object stuff. Id say outsider art, but that would suggest an actual artist was involved.