![\"20](\"http:\/\/74.220.207.133\/~nearbyca\/artandphoto\/photocritic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/20_exchange_place_rendering3.jpg\" "\\"20_exchange_place_rendering\\"")
<\/a>20 Exchange Place - architectural rendering and logo<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2022 The so-called “Acquired Assets\u201d \u2015 the bulk of what’s left, all the 10,000 or so photographs (inexplicably called the “Artex Photographs”) remaining in the\u00a0Somerville, MA storage facility, plus some miscellaneous furniture that I assume has functioned as storage equipment for the collection \u2015\u00a0were sold to Perle Holdings Inc., for $1,275,000. As indicated in a previous post<\/a>, the agent for the mysterious entity called Perle Holding was one Nathan Bruckner,\u00a0somehow connected to a Luxembourg-based entity named Eastbridge N.V. (or Eastbridge B.V.). Perle Holdings indicated, in the document accompanying its bid, that it plans to create a \u201cmuseum quality space . . . provid[ing] display and study opportunities with respect to the Acquired Assets for both general interest and scholarly audience, as well as a continued resource in photography, motion pictures, technology and books\u201d inside 20 Exchange Place, a high-end residential\/commercial structure that Eastbridge has partnered in renovating in the Wall Street district of New York. Sounds like a perfect match, eh? (See the court order finalizing this deal here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n The purchaser has stated that the “Swiss Photographs” will be a centerpiece of the WestLicht Schauplatz Museum\u2019s tenth anniversary \u00a0in summer of 2011. The purchaser intends to offer traveling exhibitions of the collection, and to publish a book in partnership with The Impossible Project. (See the court order finalizing this sale here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n While I consider it a plus that this chunk of the collection has ended up in the hands of a museum committed to drawing exhibitions and publications from it and otherwise making it accessible, its loss constitutes a blow to the Mus\u00e9e de L’Elys\u00e9e. That institution accepted this section of the Polaroid Collection in good faith, given assurances that it would become a permanent part of the Mus\u00e9e’s holdings. On that basis, and with no further subsidy from Polaroid, the Mus\u00e9e stored, insured, conserved, and catalogued those roughly 4500 works for almost two decades. That in itself represents a substantial financial, sweat-equity, and in-kind investment in the collection.<\/p>\n The Mus\u00e9e\u00a0also sought and found funding and other forms of sponsorship for exhibitions and publications drawn therefrom that enhanced considerably\u00a0the market value of this part of the collection, and the Polaroid Collection as a whole. That too represents a significant investment. Ripping that material out of the Mus\u00e9e’s holdings summarily, without compensation, constitutes an act of bad faith \u2015 even if the Minnesota Bankruptcy Court’s handling of it is obligatory, and done by the books. It also serves as a cautionary tale; with this as an example, I’d warn other institutions to be extremely wary of long-term loans with promises of eventual donation that don’t include ironclad contractual commitments.<\/p>\n I’ve gone through the PDF of the Sotheby’s catalogue for the sale, extracting therefrom the unsold lots. This includes 108 photographs plus 4 negatives.\u00a0(Click here for a PDF file of these unsold lots with full description thereof<\/a>, and click here for a PDF with thumbnails and Sotheby’s original estimates<\/a>. And\u00a0click here for the final list of lots sold, with sale prices.<\/a>)<\/p>\n The following lots were withdrawn from the auction by the Trustee as a result of objections to the auction by the photographers and others. (For this blog’s reportage and advocacy in this situation, click here.<\/a>) The 38 withdrawn works:<\/p>\n (For a PDF showing these lots, click here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n John R. Stoebner, Esq.<\/p><\/div>\n These don’t add up to anywhere near 685 images \u2015 just 146, by my count. The Trustee has elected not to make publicly available any checklist of the items contained in the “Sotheby’s Assets,” making it difficult to discuss this group of works as an aggregate and in its separate parts. (I assume that Sotheby’s, having logged in and processed all these items, could produce such a checklist easily, but I’ve neither seen nor heard of one.)<\/p>\n However, even if limited to the withdrawn and unsold images, this set clearly contains a number of items by notable names, dominated in sheer quantity by Ansel Adams. Their selection for the auction (or at least for consideration therein) by Sotheby’s experts gives them a certain level of certification in regard to value and marketable condition. Be that as it may,\u00a0these works \u2015 excepting those withdrawn to mollify the protesters \u2015\u00a0failed to make the cut in various ways. Sotheby’s presumably considered those that the house opted not to include in the auction as less marketable than those it did put on the block. The ones that failed to sell were offered but clearly rejected by the market on a lot-by-lot basis.<\/p>\n So the Trustee continues to look for a purchaser for this last small cluster of works. Identifying a buyer will conclude the dispersal of the Polaroid Collection.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/p>\n For an index of links to all previous posts related to this story,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/p>\n Bad Whether<\/strong><\/p>\n Lowering the Basketball Hoops Dept.: We’re in deep-freeze mode here in New York, and although our local groundhog,\u00a0Staten Island Chuck<\/a>, has predicted an early spring, we don’t plan to put our long johns into mothballs anytime soon.<\/p>\n On January 27, 2011 we awoke to the deposit left by a heavy snow the day and night before. That set a record: 19 inches of snow fell overnight in Manhattan’s Central Park\u00a0Thursday, beating a single day record set in 1925. Just as deep, maybe more so, out here on Staten Island.\u00a0We had guests from mainland China flying in, and weren’t sure when or if they’d get here \u2015 many flights were delayed or cancelled. (They did arrive, just a bit late.) While checking the situation at LaGuardia Airport, I also found the following email announcement from my undergraduate alma mater’s alumni association:<\/p>\n<\/a>\u2022 The approximately 4,476 photographs now in the Mus\u00e9e de L’Elys\u00e9e in Lausanne, Switzerland (called the “Swiss Photographs” by the court) were sold to WestLicht-Peter Coeln GmbH for $755,000. The notice of hearing for the sale of the Swiss photos states that this purchaser is an entity formed by former advertising photographer Peter Coeln, director of the the WestLicht Schauplatz Museum<\/a> in Vienna, Austria. So these works will leave the Mus\u00e9e de L’Elys\u00e9e and\u00a0enter the WestLicht museum’s collection \u2015 they weren’t bidding (as I speculated incorrectly in that earlier post) on behalf of the Lausanne repository.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u2022 There were no bids made on the photographs still at Sotheby\u2019s. This cluster, named the “Sotheby’s Assets” by the court, had a minimum bid figure of $556,750 during the earlier bidding period. It’s my understanding that this lot includes some 685 works, among them the ones withdrawn just prior to the auction due to the campaign to stop the auction<\/a>, those that went unsold at the auction, and presumably some others brought down from storage in Somerville to Sotheby’s in anticipation of the auction but for various reasons not included therein.<\/p>\n\n
<\/a><\/a>Now the entire batch, offered as an aggregate by the Trustee, has been rejected by the market yet again at the Trustee’s asking price. From what I gather, the Trustee has authorization from the Minnesota Bankruptcy Court to entertain further bids on this lot. Seems logical to project that the Trustee (a) wants to conclude his dispersal of the Polaroid Collection by unloading this last batch expeditiously, (b) is prepared to negotiate downward from an asking price for which he has no takers, and (c)\u00a0understands that no one is likely to give him hundreds of thousands of dollars for a pig in a poke, and is prepared to provide an inventory of the lot to prospective bidders.<\/p>\n