The comic my Mom threw away

Money speaks volumes. It defines modern art. This is why the world of comics and art have finally collided. Detective Comics #27 has sold  at Heritage Auctions in LosAngeles for an astonishing $657,250 breaking the world record price paid for a comic book. Comic fans will immediately recognize that this edition of Detective Comics boasted the very first appearance of Batman. The Status of this comic book is rivaled only by Action Comics #1

The seller of the comic bought it in Hawaii in 1974 for $1,200 from the original and only owner.

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=7023&Lot_No=91055

Glamorous Art in Beverly Hills

Alberto Vargas Esquire Cover

Psst, wanna make some money? You ever wish you had been one of those lucky people who got in on at the modern art bargain basement and bought a Picasso, Matisse or Warhol for a few thousand dollars? Well now is your chance to invest in the artists who will be worth big money in the future. Heritage auctions of Beverly Hills is holding an Illustration Auction on February 11-12 2011 and the signature artists on sale will be worth millions in the future.

The artists in question are Alberto Vargas, Gil Elvgren and Haddon Sundbolm. These three artists are the main players in the pin-up art of the Forties and Fifties. Vargas is famed for the Varga girl  pin ups he did for  Esquire and Playboy magazine. His works are age defining icons and represent the very zenith of airbrush art. Gil Elvgren is the master of stocking top sauciness from an era when the world of advertising  believed it could get away with such things. Sundbolm is the man who invented Santa Claus. Not really, he reinvented the concept of Santa Claus in the famous red and white livery of the Coca Cola company. He also redefined the American dream with a soft drinks focus. His work is all pervasive and slickly desirable.

These three artists fulfill all the investment criteria  for the serious collector. All three are leaders in their fields. All three helped to define an age of glamour that has passed into the realms nostalgic desirability. All three are artists of exceptional talent and they are all dead. Get collecting.

Expect work by these artists to fetch $20,000–$30,000 at current prices.

http://comics.ha.com/c/index.zx?ic=Tab-Home-041408

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=44227

Blu Whitewash

True Art long since moved out of the confines of the gallery, creating a schism between art that is truely contemporary, and the sanitized approximation of modern art, that the world of big gallery acceptance would have us believe is modern.

Cosying up to rebellion and controversy can lead to much cachet. It can also backfire, as street art champion Jeffery Deitch director of LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art found this week, when he was forced to whitewash out a mural by Italian graffiti artist Blu.

The giant mural featured rows of coffins with dollar bills attached to the lids. A yawn-some anti war protest that might not go down to well with MOCA’s big money sponsors and moneyed fine art clientele? A decision that I leave to the conscience of individual Juicelings.

But big Jeff didn’t take any chances, and the offending work was painted over quicker than an unsavory epithet scrawled with a sharpie on one of MOCA’s restroom walls.

According to Marcel Duchamp, ‘All art must shock and provoke thought.’ fine words from the creator of the signed latrine and the godfather of the prototypicaly rebelious Dada movement. A sentiment that certainly applies to the work by Blu. But do we really want to be shocked and provoked all the time? Do we care about political cliche writ large on the gallery wall?

The real statement here is of course the disrespect and the metaphorical wedgie that Blu has pulled on MOCA and Deitch, who has only made things worse for himself by claiming the mural might upset Japanese American veterans and that Blu can return to paint another (presumably less controversial) mural if he likes. Oh dear, it would seem big Jeff and MOCA’s David Geffen wing aren’t quite as hip as they thought they were after all.

Picasso art hoard sparks controversy

It’s hard to find good help these days. Overcharging, shoddy workmanship and all manner of service sector shennanigans lay in wait anyone foolish enough to invite the modern tradesperson over their threshhold. It is therefore vital to use trusted and well referenced help when planning home improvements. The wheels of commerce should always be well oiled with cash tips, the occasional bottle of good quality booze and perhaps a brace of partridges from the country estate, when season or occasion demands it.

It is therefore understandable that Claude Picasso was some what surprised to learn that the families former electrician Pierre Le Guennec, 71 of the French Riviera town Mouans-Sartoux, has come forward with 271 works by Pablo Picasso claiming that Jacqueline Picasso the great artists final wife had bestowed the works on him as thanks for his deft wiring skills.

Le Guennec, Picasso's electrician between 1970 and 1973, had been storing the pieces in his garage,  The works including watercolors, sketches and collages date back to the period between 1900 and 1930,


"It was madame who gave them to me, because she was pleased with my service," claimed the tousel haired codger, who also appears to be a collector of plaid shirts. At a present day value of $79 million, that is quite some tip from Madame Picasso. French culture is naturally socialist minded of course and this egalitarian gesture is to be commended. Sadly, Jacqueline Picasso passed away in 1986, so confirmation of the legitimacy this generous gift may be hard to come by.

Le Guennec presented the works to the artists estate  for authentication in September. The estate much surprised at the reemergence of such a large quantity of work once thought destroyed, claimed theft and sued for possession.  The works were seized last month by the Office Central de Lutte contre le Trafic de Biens Culturels, the French art-trafficking squad. Perhaps we should look out for the opening of yet another Picasso Museum? Watch this space.

$42m for a Lichtenstein? Ohhh…Alright…

A Roy Lichtenstein painting previously owned by billionaire money bags and sharp elbowed art fancier Steve Wynn made  $42.6 million at Christie’s International today.

Titled “Ohhh ... Alright...’’ (1964) this classic Lichtenstein represents Pop Art iconography at it’s most alluring.

The  picture topped out the current $16.3 million auction record for the artist. 


The Christies New York sale of contemporary and post-war  in  art achieved $272.8 million in sales. confirming a growing belief that the art market is heading out of the recession.

Warhol, Liz Taylor and a drunken night out with Hugh Grant

Actor and Hollywood boulevardier Hugh Grant is just one of the many men who have fallen before the enchanted countenance of Elizabeth Taylor. Grant now confesses he was drunk at the time. It was a night on the tiles that cost the floppy fringed star $3.3 million dollars. The Elizabeth Taylor in question was a 1962 Warhol print.

Grant ordered an underling to bid for the painting at an auction in New York, after indulging in a two-day drinking spree—never expecting the bid to succeed. When he sobered up, he discovered to his horror that he was the proud owner of a multi million dollar painting.

Grant sold the painting in 2007 for the vastly inflated price of $20.8 million. ‘I slightly regret selling it now, even though it made me rich.’ confessed the actor with characteristic sheepishness. 

Warhol is a master of the ironic flourish and the commoditization of popular culture, however Juicelings may notice in the  above painting a more than passing resemblance to Batman nemesis. The Joker. Intention or happen-chance? Discuss.

$35 Million for a Coke?

Rumors of inflationary pressures are hitting the US this week, but at $35 million dollars there is only one kind of Coke bottle we can be  talking about—one by Andy Warhol. Sotheby’s New York made the sale of the monochrome artwork tuesday. The sale was some what overshadowed the previous day by another piece of Warhol high campery: a 1962 Elizabeth Taylor repeat print, who’s grainy countenance fetched an astonishing $63 million at auction house Phillips de Pury & Co.