A group of contemporary works from debt-ridden collector and internet entrepreneur Halsey Minor, were sold for record sums at boutique auction house Phillips de Pury & Company on May 14. The sale totaled $37.9 million. After a July 2009 tax lien was filed against Halsey and wife Shannon, on April 9, 2010 , the Minors were listed by the California Franchise Tax Board as the state's top delinquent taxpayers under California's Revenue & Taxation Code 19195.
The Minors are listed as owing personal income taxes of $13,120,479.39 and as having made no payments. As of May 2010 Minor is barred from bidding at auction with both Christie's and Sotheby's. He is bidder non grata at Sotheby's and Christie's because, auction executives at those houses say, he refused to pay his art-buying bills at Sotheby's and backed out of a deal to sell other pieces at Christie's.
On May 22, 2008, Minor was the winning bidder in a Sotheby's auction of Edward Hicks' The Peaceable Kingdom, with a hammer price of $9.6 million, a record for the artist. Minor also won two other paintings, "Diamond Dust Shoes" by Andy Warhol and "Paris, Winter Days," by Childe Hassam. "The Peaceable Kingdom" had been on loan to the American Folk Art Museum from 2000 until 2008. The painting was owned by Ralph O. Esmerian, who took it back to pay his debts to Sotheby's, Christie's, and Merrill Lynch. Minor was sued in September for failure to pay for these paintings while waiting for Sotheby's to provide the promised documents that showed their actions had not violated New York law.
In October, Minor countersued, contending the Sotheby's had had an interest in "The Peaceable Kingdom" that they did not disclose. Minor sought to have his countersuit designated as a class action October 1, 2008, in Northern District California but this claim was dismissed. On March 30, 2010, Sotheby's won on all counts, and Minor was ordered to pay them nearly $4.4 million, plus interest, late charges and legal fees.
Merrill Lynch Private Finance. Merrill filed a suit December 22, 2008, Southern District New York federal court, Merrill v. Minor. The claim was that Minor sold off paintings that were collateral for $21.6 million Minor borrowed. In summary judgment, Judge Sidney H. Stein granted Merrill’s victory October 23, 2009.
Halsey Minor's Fox Ridge Farm property was auctioned off at the Albemarle County Circuit Courthouse, on January 4, 2010. (See Featured Art Video). The 204.6-acre estate was purchased on behalf of the Landmark Hotel owner by his Charlottesville attorney.
Nineteen of the 22 Minor lots accounted for $21,049,500 of that tally, close to their $23.85 million high estimate, though only after the buyer’s premium was added to the $18,015,000 hammer total. Overall, 58 of the 74 lots found buyers, earning a sell-through rate of 78 percent by lot and 88 percent by value. Seven of the 58 lots sold for over a million dollars.
The otherwise impressive sum amounted to a financial wash for Minor, given that the court-ordered sale directed his creditor, the investment bank Merrill Lynch (now part of Bank of America), to take $21.6 million of the proceeds.
Halsey was not part of the crowd, though. Prior to his financial troubles, Halsey was known as a big spender, buying much of his best-known works at the top of the market and from dealers known for lofty price tags. In the sale's catalogue the auction house coyly described his collecting style as “a hunger that cannot be satisfied, a thirst that cannot be quenched.”
The star cover lot of Halsey’s blue-chip trove, Richard Prince’s Nurse in Hollywood #4 (2004, above right), estimated at $5-7 million, sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for $6,466,500, the third highest price for a Prince at auction. New York art advisor Sandy Heller was the underbidder. The current auction record for a Prince is held by the 2002 Overseas Nurse, which sold for £4,241,250 ($8,467,258) at Sotheby’s London in July 2008, before the art market tanked in synch with the world financial crisis.
Six of the Halsey lots sold for over a million, including Ed Ruscha’s strange 1965 bird Angry Because it’s Plaster (right), Not Milk, which Halsey acquired directly from the artist via Gagosian Gallery. Estimated to earn $2–3 million, it ended up fetching $3,218,500.
Another high-profile item was Marc Newson’s emblematic 1988 Lockheed Lounge, the white-footed prototype of his most famous design, which sold to the telephone for a record $2,098,500, far higher than its $1–1.5 million estimate. Phillips’ design head Alexander Payne described the winning bidder as “a top buyer of contemporary culture.” The previous record for a version of the aluminum, fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin and pop-riveted chaise stood at £1,105,250 ($1,613,951), the price it earned at Phillips de Pury in London in April 2009.
