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Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the wife of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, was a renowned art collector. In the 1920s there was talk of the need to build a large gallery in the U.S., and Abby Rockefeller decided to meet this need along with two friends who were enthusiastic collectors. The Rockefeller family donated the land for the museum and the three women donated their collections. The museum they built is the Museum of Modern Art, which opened in New York in 1929. MoMA, which reopened in a new building in 2004, has become a celebrated art repository and a must-see on many people's lists.
˘ş Other wealthy people purchase expensive artworks to keep to themselves, while trying to appear as if the expensive paintings belong to their companies. Samuel D. Waksal, the founder of ImClone Systems, a bioengineering firm, bought several paintings which he had delivered to his home though his company staff signed the delivery receipts. Doing so enabled him to evade paying US$1.2 million in taxes on some $15 million worth of paintings by artists such as Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Dennis Kozlowski, former CEO of Tyco International, a medical and security equipment manufacturer, dodged taxes by forging documents to make it look as if it was his company that bought $13 million worth of paintings by Renoir and Monet.
˘şMore money was invested in the global art market in 2006 than ever before. The prices of artworks soared accordingly. "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer 1," a 1907 painting by Gustav Klimt, sold for $135 million, and "No. 5," a painting by Jackson Pollock, went for $140 million. Most expensive paintings are traded by the two most prominent art auction houses in the world, Sotheby's and Christie's. The combined amount of money exchanged at these two auction houses accounts for more than 90 percent of the total amount transacted in art auctions throughout the world.
˘şKim Yong-chul, the former head of the legal department at Samsung Group's restructuring office from 1997 to 2004, revealed on Monday a list of artworks he says were purchased by Samsung Group. The list consists of 30 works, including 26 paintings sold at Christie's in New York between 2002 and 2003. Some W60 billion (US$1=W929) was allegedly spent to buy them. The list includes "Bethlehem's Hospital," a W9.5 billion painting by Frank Stella, and "Happy Tears," a W8.65 billion painting by Roy Lichtenstein. The conglomerate has denied purchasing both.
˘şMany people on becoming wealthy take an interest in purchasing art and antiques. They look beyond luxury goods that anybody with money can buy, for rare and unique artworks. These days, people are measured and evaluated by their eye for art and their taste in paintings. The Samsung scandal corroborates the fact that expensive paintings are just "pies in the sky" as far as ordinary people are concerned. Most are too busy eking out a living to visit galleries. Maybe, we should comfort ourselves that, thanks to the scandal, we could at least catch a glimpse of expensive paintings by the likes of Lichtenstein in a newspaper.
This column was contributed by Chosun Ilbo in-house columnist Kang In-sun.
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