NEWSLETTER NO. 3   2025

New Fee Structure Drops: Phillips restructures buyer's premiums to incentivize presale commitments. LINK

Discounting Retail Prices: Josh Baer explains how & how much. LINK

Art Market Price Bubble Study: American & British Art is found to be the most bubbly and French & Italian the least. LINK

The Death Effect: Economics paper examining the interplay of auction prices, exhibition patterns, and short-term transaction costs after an artist's death. LINK

AI Is Not a Substitute: State of California fines lawyer for ChatGPT fabrications. LINK

AI Is Not a Substitute Part II: A very interesting case study of how LLM error rates compound over time in accounting. LINK (hat tip: Benedict Evans)

Jackson Pollock = Litigation: Two lawsuits announced regarding Jackson Pollock paintings. LINK and LINK

It's Been Over a Decade: Peter Doig wins appeal. LINK

Perelman Loses: Judge rules no loss in high-stakes insurance case. Will there be an appeal? LINK

November Is Coming: Some very nice collections and works are coming to market this fall. See Lauder, Kawamura, & Pritzker. Do the September Karpidas Collection results represent a revival of animal spirits? LINK

Project Minerva: The Leiden Collection announces a plan to fractionalize its collection of Dutch Old Masters. LINK

Italy in the Lead: Italy's 5% VAT is now the lowest in the EU. LINK

Bayeux Tapestry to Return to the UK? Whether or not this exhibition will happen is up for debate. LINK

"Depression Temples": A 979.7K view thread debating the art collecting habits, or lack thereof, of people who live in San Francisco and work in tech. LINK

Out of the Ashes: A moving and multilayered essay on the reclamation efforts at Los Angeles's assemblage artist John Outterbridge's studio. LINK

The Collector: David Geffen
The entertainment mogul and arts philanthropist David Geffen has acquired one of the most admired—and valuable—collections of postwar American art. His collection is relatively small compared to that of other billionaires—supposedly around 50 pieces—but his savvy taste and deal-making skills have earned him exceptional works by David Hockney, Jasper Johns, and Jackson Pollock. “Piece for piece, work for work, there's no collection that has better representation of postwar American art than David Geffen's. Period," former LACMA curator Paul Schimmel once said. “It is to postwar American Art what the Frick Collection is to Old Master painting.” READ MORE

On the Opening of Calder Gardens: The Surprise Element
On Saturday at the opening of the Calder Gardens in Philadelphia, descending Herzog & de Meuron's volcanic black stairway, I caught a mobile through what might have been a ship's porthole—suspended there like a daddy long-legs you might find mangled, still twitching. READ MORE

The Gochman Family Collection: A Different Approach
The juxtaposition is deliberate, one suspects. In a traditionally appointed Central Park apartment—the kind of domestic space that has housed American collections for over a century—contemporary Indigenous works by artists such as Ishi Glinsky (Tohono O'odham), Gabrielle L'Hirondelle Hill (Métis), and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) hang alongside pieces by Alice Neel. READ MORE

Caravaggio 2025. Edited by Francesca Cappelletti, Maria Cristina Terzaghi. Marsilio Arte, August 2025. LINK

Liberty: Design. Pattern. Color. By Kassia St Clair. Publisher: W. W. Norton, June 2025. LINK

Millionaire Shopping: The collections of Alfred Morrison, 1821–1897. Edited by Caroline Dakers. Publisher: UCL Press, September 2025. LINK

The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry: The Masterpiece of Medieval Illumination. Edited by Mathieu Deldicque and Pieter Roelofs and Till-Holger Borchert. Publisher: Rizzoli, September 2025. LINK

Peters Gallery of New York, Inc v. Successors-in-Interest to Eberstadt & Sons: Judge rules in favor of Peters Gallery in its entirety. Susan McDonough provided an appraisal of six Western American Art paintings for this case on behalf of Peters.

AI Panel at Appraisers Association National Conference: Tobias will moderate "AI and the Future of Art Valuation" on November 5th at 3:15 PM EST at the Appraisers Association of America National Conference with Olivier Berger (Wondeur AI) and Nicholas Pilz (Appraisal Standards Board). The panel examines practical AI applications in appraisal practice and USPAP compliance questions.

Winter-Spring 2026 USPAP Courses: Susan will be teaching the 15 Hour USPAP Class & Exam January 28–30 and the 7 Hour USPAP Updates on February 19 and April 30. Sign up at the Appraisers Association of America.

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