Speaker 1: The more we learn about COVID nineteen, the more questions
Speaker 1: and worries we have. Cal Hope can help with free
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen emotional support. Call eight three three three one
Speaker 1: seven four, six seven three or live chat at cal
Speaker 1: hope dot org Today. The more we learn about COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: the more questions we have. The biggest question now, what's next?
Speaker 1: What will COVID bring in six months a year? If
Speaker 1: you're feeling anxious about the future, You're not alone. Cal
Speaker 1: Hope offers free COVID nineteen emotional support. Call eight three
Speaker 1: three three one seven four six seven three or live
Speaker 1: chat at cal hope dot org today. Advertising is online
Speaker 1: and delivered where you are. Just like this radio ad.
Speaker 1: I want to know what else is delivered where you are.
Speaker 1: We'll give you a hint. It's shiny as a honk
Speaker 1: and comes with special features that you get to personally
Speaker 1: pick out, like other or cloth. It's unroof or moonroof,
Speaker 1: or four wheel drivers, all wheel drive. Yeah, a car,
Speaker 1: A CarMax car, buy online, get it delivered to you.
Speaker 1: It's car buying reimagined Carmacks available within a sixty mile
Speaker 1: radius of select doors. See carmacks dot com for details.
Speaker 1: Some restrictions apply. When you go into a gallery, you
Speaker 1: go into a museum, and you look at a painting,
Speaker 1: you don't know what the story is behind the painting.
Speaker 1: It's like seeing somebody in the street who's an old man.
Speaker 1: You don't know all the adventures he's had, and all
Speaker 1: the marriages he's had, and all the divorces he's had.
Speaker 1: My name is Aaron Richard Gollub. I'm an attorney licensed
Speaker 1: to practice law in the state of New York, and
Speaker 1: my concentration is art world issues. I had a case
Speaker 1: years ago involving a portrait of Coloma Picasso by Picasso,
Speaker 1: and there were two precisely the same portraits of Picasso's daughter,
Speaker 1: one owned by a dealer in Spain and one owned
Speaker 1: by a collector in Switzerland. They were idea entacle. Claude
Speaker 1: Picasso came over to the gallery and unpacked the painting
Speaker 1: that Cogozian was about to show in a Picasso show,
Speaker 1: and Claude said, well, the nails are rusted that attacked
Speaker 1: the canvas to the stretcher on this painting, and on
Speaker 1: the other painting the nails are not rusted, and that
Speaker 1: was his basis of saying that one picture was a
Speaker 1: counterfeit and the other picture was not. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's a basis to determine authenticity. Authenticity can fall under
Speaker 1: the general rubric of fraud, but authenticity is a world
Speaker 1: in and of itself where painting has been counterfeited. Somebody
Speaker 1: has made a painting and claims it's by a certain
Speaker 1: artist in that style of the artist, and in fact
Speaker 1: that artist never made that painting. Now if somebody sells
Speaker 1: you that painting and claims that that painting is by
Speaker 1: a Matisse or it's by Warhole, and it's not, that's fraud,
Speaker 1: but it's actually really counterfeit. It is what you're going
Speaker 1: to have to prove. People are always fooling everybody in
Speaker 1: the art world. It's a place where that game is
Speaker 1: played by everybody. And Friedman would never have imagined growing
Speaker 1: up to be the most notorious dealer of the New
Speaker 1: York art market. She might have been an art professor, perhaps,
Speaker 1: but as her career blossomed and she came to see
Speaker 1: just how good she was at selling art, being a
Speaker 1: dealer suited her quite well, and not just a run
Speaker 1: of the mill dealer to be sure, but one of distinction,
Speaker 1: helping artists and collectors she loved. She was born and
Speaker 1: Louise Fertig in the early nineteen fifties in Scarsdale, a
Speaker 1: wealthy bedroom community north of New York City. Her father
Speaker 1: was a vice president of a commercial real estate company
Speaker 1: called Williams and Company, perhaps not by chance, and would
Speaker 1: marry a commercial real estate executive herself, Robert Lawrence Freedman
Speaker 1: real Men and told one of her staffers worked in commercial,
Speaker 1: not residential real estate. Two people in Anne Friedman's life
Speaker 1: would play an instrumental role in inspiring her art career.
Speaker 1: The first was her mother, Hilda Fertig, who first brought
Speaker 1: Anne to New York City's art museums as a child.
Speaker 1: The other was H. W. Jansen, the legendary author of
Speaker 1: the History of Art, the standard text for millions of
Speaker 1: students around the world. Jansen was a Russian emigre. Through
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties, he taught at Washington University in St.
Speaker 1: Louis and helped expand the breadth of these school's art collection.
Speaker 1: He left a legacy for generations of students to admire,
Speaker 1: though not without controversy. Not a single female artist was
Speaker 1: described in his epic tone. Anne Freedman would become one
Speaker 1: of those captivated new students upon her own arrival at
Speaker 1: Washington University in the late nineteen sixties, earning a Bachelor
Speaker 1: of Fine Arts degree in the summer of nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 1: When Anne graduated, finding gainful employment wasn't easy. New York
Speaker 1: was on the verge of a nasty recession. Somehow, Anne
Speaker 1: managed to reach Robert Miller, a senior director of the
Speaker 1: American Gallery on fifty seventh Street, and talked him into
Speaker 1: granting her a job interview. Whatever she said at the meeting,
Speaker 1: it worked. Friedman began working as a receptionist at the
Speaker 1: Emeric and immersed herself in the color field painters for
Speaker 1: which it was known abstract expressionists of a softer school
Speaker 1: like Maurice Lewis and Helen Frankenthaler, with their broad washes
Speaker 1: of color, as opposed to the bold, almost brutal strokes
Speaker 1: of the action painters like Jackson Pollock and William Dacooning.
Speaker 1: Here's writer Michael shne Yerson, and starting salary was five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year or a hundred dollars a week.
Speaker 1: It was typical pay for newcomers in the world where
Speaker 1: wealthy parents who were expected to do their part. Eager
Speaker 1: and perhaps somewhat desperate and began overstepping her lowly tasks
Speaker 1: and started actually selling art. And she was successful, so
Speaker 1: much so that her boss was thunderstruck. As Anne said
Speaker 1: herself in one of my interviews with her for Vanity Fair,
Speaker 1: she said, Andre started seeing more and more invoices on
Speaker 1: his desk than he ever could have imagined. There was
Speaker 1: a sense of some disbelief, if not resentment. No one
Speaker 1: paved the way for me to sell, but I sought
Speaker 1: out the opportunity and I never looked back. Her personal
Speaker 1: life was bossoming as well. Anne would marry her fiancee,
Speaker 1: Robert Friedman, on Christmas Day. A Long Island Rabbi Jack
Speaker 1: Stern performed the ceremony at Manhattan's Regency Hotel. Anne and
Speaker 1: Robert would have a daughter, Jessica, and moved to an
Speaker 1: apartment on East Street, where they still live. Despite her
Speaker 1: early successes both personally and professionally, it would be fair
Speaker 1: to say that Anne wasn't embraced by her colleagues at
Speaker 1: the Emeric Gallery. She glowed with ambition and showed little
Speaker 1: interest in making new friends. Rumor had it that one
Speaker 1: of Anne's colleagues threw a typewriter at her. Another time,
Speaker 1: the owner of the gallery, andre Emrick, returned to New
Speaker 1: York from a trip to London with little gifts for
Speaker 1: his staffers. Emeric announced that his gift to Anne was
Speaker 1: a Rose Royce. Supposedly, she raced to the window to
Speaker 1: see if there was a real one parked on the street.
Speaker 1: Those were the kinds of expectations she had, The staffer said,
Speaker 1: it was, of course a little toy. She was very ambitious.
Speaker 1: People at the gallery hated her. Emeric widow, Suzanne, said
Speaker 1: the galleries registrar once wrote to owner andre Emrick about
Speaker 1: Anne and how she behaved when he was gone. She
Speaker 1: was vicious, the registrar fumed. While Anne was rising at Emeric,
Speaker 1: another young ambitious staffer was a step ahead of her
Speaker 1: at the Knoedler Gallery. Leslie Feeley came to Ndler in
Speaker 1: one with the legendary dealer Larry Ruben when the armand
Speaker 1: hammer era of Ndler ownership began. By this time, the
Speaker 1: Knodler was no longer the most venerable gallery in New
Speaker 1: York those days, were long gone. By one the gallery
Speaker 1: had slumped to a third rate institution, with artists like
Speaker 1: Leroy Nieman, who was most well known for depicting bright,
Speaker 1: splashy sports scenes with crowd pleasing speed. The longtime dealer
Speaker 1: Richard Fagen famously said that armand Hammer bought a cadaver
Speaker 1: when he bought the Knodler. As Leslie Feely recalled, the
Speaker 1: Knoedler had no contemporary art at that point in the
Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies. I never thought of Nodler. I don't
Speaker 1: think it was active. Armand Hammer needed a dealer who
Speaker 1: could help bring prestige and clients back to Knoedler. In
Speaker 1: Larry Reuben. He'd found his man. Starting with the brilliant
Speaker 1: Frank Stella and Kenneth Noland. Reuben was proving his value
Speaker 1: to Nodler and armand Hammer right away. He also brought
Speaker 1: in Richard Debencorne, the great abstract landscape painter. That's why
Speaker 1: he signed up Larry. For the artists, Leslie Feely and
Speaker 1: Larry came in together. That's Joe Stevens. Joe was the
Speaker 1: Nodler's art handler. My main job was I was the
Speaker 1: shipping manager and the head preparator of all the artwork
Speaker 1: and hanging shows. Leslie was Larry's partner assistant. She was
Speaker 1: on a higher level. She sold at work. Leslie worked
Speaker 1: at Adler for nearly half a decade until she left
Speaker 1: abruptly in n As. Leslie said armand Hammer didn't keep
Speaker 1: his word with her. He'd offered up her compensation for
Speaker 1: artwork sold. She said yes on a Friday. On Monday
Speaker 1: he came back and said, I'm sorry, I can't give
Speaker 1: you that deal. With that, Leslie left to become an
Speaker 1: independent dealer on her own. I opened to gallery when
Speaker 1: Frank Gary built gallery for me. I mean he was
Speaker 1: my architect. He's terrivic friend. I think, a great architect.
Speaker 1: And it was a very beautiful gallery on sixty eight
Speaker 1: and Madison. That was when Anne became Larry Rubin's right hand,
Speaker 1: taking Leslie's place, and then Ann Freedman came in and
Speaker 1: the changes were happening. She was the receptionist, very knowledgeable woman.
Speaker 1: You know, she knew her stuff and she had that
Speaker 1: I always called it the gifted gap. She was incredible talker.
Speaker 1: What change did you observe? Well, she didn't move up,
Speaker 1: you know, she went move right up, she get out,
Speaker 1: and she wand up at getting her own office. Since
Speaker 1: she started selling artwork, often vying for paintings with her
Speaker 1: from outside the gallery, Leslie would come to know an
Speaker 1: Freedman style of business all too well. Almost from the beginning,
Speaker 1: it sounds like you've got a sense of this woman
Speaker 1: not only as abrasive and difficult and unpleasant, but someone
Speaker 1: who was, you know, willing to do anything to make
Speaker 1: a profit. Absolutely, it was in the fall of nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven when Leslie left the Notler, with an eager
Speaker 1: and Friedman stepping in to take her place. After her departure,
Speaker 1: Leslie's dealings with Larry Reuben on works by the artist
Speaker 1: which are deep in corn came from outside the gallery.
Speaker 1: The work was beautiful, anyone could see that, but the
Speaker 1: heat of deep in Corns market was also due to
Speaker 1: the way he worked. He would produce a dozens of
Speaker 1: ocean park paintings and drawings, then send them in one
Speaker 1: great clump to Knoedler dealer. Larry Reuben would earmark new
Speaker 1: paintings for his favorite clients, many of them dealers themselves.
Speaker 1: Leslie Feely was lucky enough to be on that list
Speaker 1: to Anne's intense irritation. There was nothing she could do
Speaker 1: to keep Larry from allocating a Deep in Corn to
Speaker 1: Leslie when one of those batches of new work came in.
Speaker 1: I think I bought a Deep and Corn in every
Speaker 1: Deep in Corn show. I was still friendly with Larry,
Speaker 1: which was good, and I was friendly with the deepon Corns,
Speaker 1: and I loved his work, and it was so exciting
Speaker 1: for me to buy one. One staffer at Ndler said
Speaker 1: that opening those Deep in Corn and shipments was like
Speaker 1: opening presents on Christmas morning. The paintings would be all
Speaker 1: lined up. These were the days when an ocean park
Speaker 1: crossed maybe eighteen to dollars. Larry would let Ann Friedman
Speaker 1: have first pick. The staffer later said to Larry, why
Speaker 1: let Anne have first choice? Because Ruben said, with a laugh,
Speaker 1: I know she'll pick the worst one. Would she be
Speaker 1: buying Deep in Corns as well? Well? She must have.
Speaker 1: I don't think she had a particularly good relationship with
Speaker 1: the artist, or the wife or the children. Who were
Speaker 1: you know who ended up managing these days soon enough,
Speaker 1: to the shock of the gallery staff, and acquired the
Speaker 1: title of head of Contemporary Art Sales. She felt she'd
Speaker 1: paid her dues as the front receptionist and demanded a
Speaker 1: position of greater distinction. The title was quite a leap, perhaps,
Speaker 1: but her sales skills were being noticed. She was known
Speaker 1: as the rainmaker. That's artist Michael David. Michael came to
Speaker 1: Ndler as a client of the gallery in a collector
Speaker 1: introduced my work to end and then and and Larry
Speaker 1: came to the studio. There was this desire to find
Speaker 1: young artists at that point, and I think that Larry
Speaker 1: liked me, not so much for the work at that point,
Speaker 1: but because of the way I spoke, in the speed
Speaker 1: of my speaking reminds him of Frank Stella. I know
Speaker 1: that there was a hierarchy of floors. You go past
Speaker 1: that red velvet rope and then there'll be one floor,
Speaker 1: and then it would be Ant's officer in Larry's office,
Speaker 1: and Larry would focus more on the higher end blue
Speaker 1: chip and Ann would do more of the volume selling.
Speaker 1: That was my impression. Joe Stevens remembers what it was
Speaker 1: like handling art for private meetings with Ann's clients. Atle
Speaker 1: she had a huge supply of artwork in her office
Speaker 1: was always painted and taken care of and you know
Speaker 1: she had six French windows overlooking seventy Street. He had
Speaker 1: a big, huge office. You know, she had a couch
Speaker 1: in front of it, sat down with the clients. Very
Speaker 1: convenient and well done. You know. It was always a
Speaker 1: very clean and immaculate and we used to come up
Speaker 1: and you know, you have the two people have to
Speaker 1: pull out one of these big motherwells, you know, so
Speaker 1: you know, put it right back and pull out at
Speaker 1: all this It was kind of really cool to do
Speaker 1: that because I'm listening to how what they're paying for
Speaker 1: these things, and I'm going, you know, it was an
Speaker 1: incredible a mans of money that these people paid for him.
Speaker 1: Here's artist Michael David. Again. There was also a thing
Speaker 1: that you know, there was always you know, we don't
Speaker 1: sell work. We place work, and you know we'll always
Speaker 1: take the work back. Was it true? Could you decide
Speaker 1: you didn't like a stella and bring it back and
Speaker 1: get your money back. I don't think that you get
Speaker 1: your money back. I think they would make efforts to
Speaker 1: sell it for you. Interestingly, in my Vanity Fair story,
Speaker 1: Michael David had described Anne rather more sharply. He said
Speaker 1: she wasn't someone you wanted to play poker with, or
Speaker 1: someone you wanted to cross. She's a complicated person. She
Speaker 1: was great at what she did. I never saw evidence
Speaker 1: of her being unethical. She had an edge, she took
Speaker 1: no prisoners, and she could be vindictive. I think for
Speaker 1: her it was always about making it rain. I think
Speaker 1: that was how she defined herself. That may have been
Speaker 1: a fatal flaw that led her not to be as
Speaker 1: mindful as she should have been. But at some point
Speaker 1: after the Vanity Fair story appeared, Anne had taken Michael
Speaker 1: David to lunch more than once and conveyed how hurt
Speaker 1: she had been to be called vindictive, and so David's
Speaker 1: portrait of her had softened over the years. For Noodler's artists,
Speaker 1: like Michael David, art was never anything less than a business.
Speaker 1: But how did the money change hands between the buyer,
Speaker 1: the seller and the artist. That's after the break. What's up, guys?
Speaker 1: I'm a Shop Bloud and I am Troy Millions and
Speaker 1: we are the host of the Earn Your Leisure podcast
Speaker 1: where we break down business models and examine the latest
Speaker 1: trends and finance. We hold court and have exclusive interviews
Speaker 1: with some of the biggest names of business, sport, and
Speaker 1: entertainment from DJ Khaled to Mark Cuban, Rick Ross, and
Speaker 1: Shaquille O'Neil. I mean our alumni list is expansive. Listen
Speaker 1: in as our guests reveal their business models, hardships and
Speaker 1: triumphs and their respective fields. The knowledge is in death
Speaker 1: and the questions are always delivered from your standpoint. We
Speaker 1: want to know what you want to know. We talked
Speaker 1: to the legends of business, sports, and entertainment about how
Speaker 1: they got their start and most importantly, how they make
Speaker 1: their money. Earn your Leisia is a college business class
Speaker 1: mixed with pop culture. I want to learn about the
Speaker 1: real estate game, unclears, how the stock market works. We
Speaker 1: got you interested in starting a truck and company or
Speaker 1: vendor machine business. Not really sure about how taxes or
Speaker 1: credit work. We got it all covered. The Arnie Leisure
Speaker 1: podcast is available now. Listen to Ernie Leisure on the
Speaker 1: Black Effect podcast Network. I hear radio, app, Apple podcast
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Emilia on this podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm taking you on a search, a search for love.
Speaker 1: Hard working Latina seeks cool, down to earth guy. Swipe
Speaker 1: swipe slide. It's hard out there. For a girl to
Speaker 1: find Mr Wright, I have to meet a lot of
Speaker 1: Mr Wrong's. He'd invite me over to have dinner with
Speaker 1: his family. I knew he didn't tell them that it
Speaker 1: was transgender. Dating as a trans woman can be complicated,
Speaker 1: but there were other reasons. I felt like I couldn't
Speaker 1: always beat myself. And he's asking me things about my family,
Speaker 1: like my mom's in prison, my grandmother was arrested for
Speaker 1: working with the Mexican drug cartel. This scrumbs my love story.
Speaker 1: It's to show about the things we set up for
Speaker 1: and the bits of ourselves that make us who we are.
Speaker 1: Listen to Crumbs as part of the Michael la podcast network,
Speaker 1: available on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. The Gangster Chronicles podcast is
Speaker 1: a weekly conversation that revolves around the underworld and criminals
Speaker 1: and entertainers to victims, crime and law enforcement. We cover
Speaker 1: all facets of the game. Gainst Chronicles podcast doesn't glorify
Speaker 1: promotilstit activities. We just discussed the ramifications and repercussions of
Speaker 1: these activities. Because after all, she played gamester games. You
Speaker 1: are ultimately rewarded with Gangster prizes our Heart Radios number
Speaker 1: one for podcasts, but don't take our award for it.
Speaker 1: Find Against the Chronicles podcast and I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast. The financial arrangement between
Speaker 1: Nodler and its artists seemed simple enough on the surface.
Speaker 1: Everything was on paper before computers. Recalled one staffer, if
Speaker 1: the price for a painting just sold was say one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars, then the standards split on painting sold
Speaker 1: was fifty fifty fifty for the artist and fifty percent
Speaker 1: for the gallery. But at Nadler there was a category
Speaker 1: called report to Artists. Instead of being recorded as a
Speaker 1: sale for one hundred thousand dollars, the report to artist
Speaker 1: would show the sale as, say, ninety six thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: When the fifty fifty split was made, the artist got
Speaker 1: fifty percent of ninety six thousand dollars, not of one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars. It wasn't a big reduction for the artist.
Speaker 1: In fact, it was so small that most of the
Speaker 1: artists were probably perfectly happy pocketing their fifty of the
Speaker 1: report to artists that they failed to question the galleries
Speaker 1: accounting methods. The staffer a new arrival at the time,
Speaker 1: questioned one or two book about the practice. To her,
Speaker 1: it seemed unsavory, a red flag, as she put it,
Speaker 1: but she felt if she pushed too far, she'd put
Speaker 1: her job in jeopardy. Donald Sultan, one of the Knodler
Speaker 1: galleries younger artists at the time, confirmed that Anne kept
Speaker 1: two separate sets of books. Sultan said she told people
Speaker 1: she sold an artwork for X, but she actually sold
Speaker 1: it for X plus y. Either she or the gallery
Speaker 1: kept the difference. Another delicate matter at Ndler was the
Speaker 1: upstairs presence of an accountant, Dr. Maury Leebovitz, who ran
Speaker 1: a much larger operation. He oversaw not just the Kndler,
Speaker 1: but also the very commercial Hammer Gallery situated on Park Avenue,
Speaker 1: just above Street, which the Hammer family had bought some
Speaker 1: time before. He was a shadowy figure. The staffers set
Speaker 1: of Maury You were not allowed to even mention his
Speaker 1: presence because they didn't want anyone to know the two
Speaker 1: galleries were run together. Why because while the Noodlers sold
Speaker 1: art of impeccable quality to wealthy collectors, the Hammer Gallery
Speaker 1: over on Park Avenue sold tacky artists like Leroy Nieman
Speaker 1: with his highly commercial sports scenes to Larry, Reuben and
Speaker 1: the rest of Knoedler, Niemen was an embarrassment. In spite
Speaker 1: of this, Niemen was the biggest earner for the two
Speaker 1: galleries combined, and his profits helped prop up the galleries
Speaker 1: bottom line. There was nothing illegal about this, It was
Speaker 1: just a way of disguising the galleries finances. The k
Speaker 1: Nodler would disguise its finances later on too, in a
Speaker 1: much different and very illegal way. By the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: Anna had become a fixture at Knodler, selling far more
Speaker 1: than anyone else at the gallery, and thus accruing more
Speaker 1: power as she did it. One former staffer recalls Anne saying,
Speaker 1: I could have sold catalogs, but I chose to sell art.
Speaker 1: Perhaps she was being facetious, but to the staffer that
Speaker 1: sort of rang true. When I used to go to
Speaker 1: the Nolar Gallery, which I did every trip to New York,
Speaker 1: to see Larry, perhaps to buy something, or you know,
Speaker 1: just have Blanche whatever. Ann Friedman's office was not in office.
Speaker 1: It was a desk in the showroom where they had
Speaker 1: their paintings in racks. She would be right there. That's
Speaker 1: John Burgruin, who San Francisco gallery remains a bastion of
Speaker 1: the art business more than half a century since he
Speaker 1: opened it on Grant Avenue, and Friedman was always, as
Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned, controversial person, you know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I often wondered how Larry dealt with her on a
Speaker 1: day to day basis. What was striking about her presence,
Speaker 1: the fact that factly she was even there in a way.
Speaker 1: But what was her style? Well, she was aggressive. Another
Speaker 1: former staffer took a slightly softer view. She was demanding,
Speaker 1: but not totally unfair. She was like that type in
Speaker 1: the devil Wares product That was Anne. He never felt
Speaker 1: close to her, the staffer added, there's an almost masculine quality,
Speaker 1: hard to read. She was tough and a lot of
Speaker 1: people ended up not liking her. The note was a
Speaker 1: long time manager and art handler, Joe Stephens, once stopped
Speaker 1: at her desk in the late nineteen eighties after hours.
Speaker 1: When she was gone, his eyes widened. There was Anne's
Speaker 1: latest paycheck. I was juned and she was already made
Speaker 1: seventies thousand dollars. It was June and she had already
Speaker 1: made three seventy five for the year. So far, so far,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of money in the late eighties. That's
Speaker 1: what I found out. These were the go go years
Speaker 1: in the contemporary art market. Dealers like Leo Castelli and
Speaker 1: Mary Boone were selling big, bold canvases of artists like
Speaker 1: Julian Schnabel and Eric Fischel, along with David Sally and
Speaker 1: Ross Bleckner. Abstract art was out along with minimalist art.
Speaker 1: Figurative art was back in with a vengeance. The Knoedler
Speaker 1: wasn't quite at the heart of all this. Once again,
Speaker 1: it was selling the art no longer quite of its
Speaker 1: day under Larry Reuben. However, it did well enough when
Speaker 1: Larry was the head of the gallery. Were we weren't
Speaker 1: in trouble for money? It was? It was a name
Speaker 1: armand Hammer died in nineteen ninety, leaving his grandson Michael
Speaker 1: as chairman of Knoedler as well as head of the
Speaker 1: Tacky Hammer Gallery on Park Avenue. Michael Hammer was an
Speaker 1: elusive are known mostly for his born again evangelical zeal,
Speaker 1: his deep affinity for tanning machines, and later for his
Speaker 1: two dozen or so vintage automobiles. But he was smart
Speaker 1: enough to let Larry Reuben keep running the Notler Gallery,
Speaker 1: and though the whole art market suffered a major recession
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen nineties, with the galleries closing right
Speaker 1: and left, Nler survived due in combination to the revenues
Speaker 1: from the Hammer Gallery and blue chip artists who stayed
Speaker 1: loyal to Larry Reuben. What Michael Hammer failed to sense, however,
Speaker 1: was that Anne was no longer a docile salesperson for Nler.
Speaker 1: She felt she was the one keeping the gallery afloat.
Speaker 1: The major sales were hers, and yet the gallery wasn't
Speaker 1: giving her the credit she felt she deserved. The more
Speaker 1: underappreciated she felt, the more resentment she radiated. It was
Speaker 1: about that time in the early nineties, said Larry Reuben
Speaker 1: started planning his exit. I didn't understand him leaving the gallery,
Speaker 1: but he missed Europe. He had a house in the
Speaker 1: south of France, and then he had the house in Italy.
Speaker 1: He wanted a semi retire. Joe Stevens recalls Larry's departure.
Speaker 1: I knew something was wrong now. I didn't know if
Speaker 1: it was because the galery was taken over by Michael
Speaker 1: I couldn't figure it out. Reuben wanted a life of
Speaker 1: European travel. Yet he still wanted to retain control of
Speaker 1: the gallery. He would manage to do just that by
Speaker 1: bringing in a successor, one who reported directly to him.
Speaker 1: This was an expert in multiples named Donald Staff. Multiples
Speaker 1: mean any art made in more than one copy. Usually
Speaker 1: it's a numbered and signed edition. Lithographs are multiples, for example,
Speaker 1: so were engravings, which were part of the origins of Nodler.
Speaker 1: Back in the eighteen forties. Donald Staff had done multiples
Speaker 1: for the great pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, and the two
Speaker 1: had grown close. It was a good chance that Staff
Speaker 1: might get Lichtenstein to join the Notar Gallery. Larry Ruben
Speaker 1: thought he had talked Michael Hammer into adopting this plan.
Speaker 1: Larry would direct the gallery from Italy, where he had
Speaker 1: a country home, and Larry and Donald Staff would run
Speaker 1: it together, and Friedman would be the hard driving salesperson.
Speaker 1: I'm sure at that point she was saying, I'm making
Speaker 1: all the sales. He's not doing anything. You don't need him,
Speaker 1: You'll do just as many sales, which was probably true
Speaker 1: in a sense. No, no, but she had no connections
Speaker 1: to get Liechtenstein or Rauschenberg. The other guy had better
Speaker 1: connections Donald Saft, Yeah, yeah, and so even though not
Speaker 1: didn't yet have Ralchenberg or there was a hope of it,
Speaker 1: whereas there was no hope if if Anne was the
Speaker 1: head of the gallery she didn't know any of these artists.
Speaker 1: I mean, what what sort of self delusion you've called it?
Speaker 1: The news of Larry's retirement and Staff's imminent arrival in
Speaker 1: the fall of infuriated Anne. Later she said she just
Speaker 1: wanted to know what don sass Roll would be that
Speaker 1: seemed to cause a problems and put it dryly to me,
Speaker 1: she wanted more than that, She wanted to know why
Speaker 1: she shouldn't be made director of the gallery after seventeen years,
Speaker 1: when she was the one who sold the art and
Speaker 1: shored up the company's bottom line Like a heat seeking
Speaker 1: missile and shot into Michael Hammer's office on a mid
Speaker 1: November day in and took him on directly. She could
Speaker 1: do everything Ruben and saff could do, she pointed out
Speaker 1: to have. She could cultivate new artists, organized their shows,
Speaker 1: and run the business at the same time. She would
Speaker 1: sell a lot more art than Reuben or Staff put together.
Speaker 1: Why not let her run the gallery with Michael Hammer's help,
Speaker 1: of course, and send the old men packing, and must
Speaker 1: have been persuasive because Michael Hammer changed his mind on
Speaker 1: the spot and gave her the job. He did that
Speaker 1: even though Sav had just been formerly hired as co
Speaker 1: director and was sent a letter detailing the terms of
Speaker 1: his employment. According to Staff's lawyer, the letter was signed
Speaker 1: by Staff and sent back to Ndler to be countersigned.
Speaker 1: It was sitting in an inbox at the Knoedler when
Speaker 1: Hammer changed his mind and seized it. Staff's lawyers accused
Speaker 1: Hammer of preaching an oral agreement, but the charge went nowhere.
Speaker 1: There would be no more talk of Sav and Reuben
Speaker 1: as co directors. There would be just one direct her
Speaker 1: and Friedman. We'll be back in a minute. And we're
Speaker 1: live here outside the Perez family home, just waiting for
Speaker 1: the And there they go, almost on time. This morning,
Speaker 1: Mom is coming out the front door, strong with a
Speaker 1: double arm kid carry. Looks like Dad has the bags
Speaker 1: daughter he's bringing up the rear. Oh but the diaper
Speaker 1: bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys are everywhere. Oh but
Speaker 1: mom has just nailed the perfect car seat buckle for
Speaker 1: the toddler. And now the eldest daughter, who looks to
Speaker 1: be about nine or ten, has secured herself in the
Speaker 1: booster seat. Dad zips the bag clothes and they're off,
Speaker 1: but looks like Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is
Speaker 1: still on the roof of the car and there it goes. Ah,
Speaker 1: that's a shame that mug was a fan favorite. Don't
Speaker 1: sweat the small stuff, just nailed the big stuff, like
Speaker 1: making sure your kids are buckled correctly in the right
Speaker 1: seat for their agent's eye. Learn more n h t
Speaker 1: s A dot go Slash the Right Seat visits n
Speaker 1: h s A dot gov Slash the Right Seat. Brought
Speaker 1: to you by NITZA and the Ad Council. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Arden Marine from Shameless and Statiable, Chelsea Lately and the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio podcast Will You Accept This Rose? And
Speaker 1: I'm Julianne Robinson and Emmy and bafta nominated director most
Speaker 1: recently of Bridgetain. And we are the hosts of Lady
Speaker 1: of the Road, a funny and inspiring podcast where we
Speaker 1: have conversations with influential women about their lives and we
Speaker 1: get self help advice. We're always looking to improve ourselves
Speaker 1: and we figure there's no better source for learning how
Speaker 1: to be brave, take risks and advocate for yourself in
Speaker 1: life than speaking with motivating, uplifting women. Some of them
Speaker 1: we've met throughout our careers and some of them were
Speaker 1: just meeting now. We talk about money, health, relationships, parenthood,
Speaker 1: running a business you name it from inspiring women like
Speaker 1: Joan Jet, Nicole Buyer, Lauren lobkis Htta, Ricky Lindholm, Kate mccouchee,
Speaker 1: Kate Walsh, shondaland per You, Sir, Betsy bears Adu and
Speaker 1: o Jen Kirkman and more. Listen and subscribe to Lady
Speaker 1: of the Road on the I Heart Radio app Apple
Speaker 1: podcasts over if would you get your podcasts? The Black
Speaker 1: Effect presents I didn't know, maybe you didn't either, but
Speaker 1: the history of black people ain't rooted in slavery. Oh,
Speaker 1: no is royalty, not despair. Beat out here and every
Speaker 1: day in February, I will give you a black history
Speaker 1: fact that I didn't know, and maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: It's a rugged, ratchet, realistic look at history. Listen, so
Speaker 1: I didn't know, maybe you didn't either. On the Black
Speaker 1: Effect podcast Network, our Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or
Speaker 1: just wherever you get your podcast from. Ann's new title
Speaker 1: seemed to assure her great success, but Leslie Feeley since
Speaker 1: the story would turn out badly if only because of
Speaker 1: Anne's temperament. She was not a people person. She would
Speaker 1: try to you know, sway people gush over people, but
Speaker 1: a lot of people didn't go for her. One collecting
Speaker 1: couple who resisted her charms was the Mayer Hoffs. Wonderful,
Speaker 1: fabulous collect According to one person in Baltimore, they would
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with Anne. A lot of people
Speaker 1: had that reaction, like me, yea, whether collectors or dealers
Speaker 1: anything so interesting that she should alienated them all and
Speaker 1: yet still get this job. So thanks to Michael Hammer,
Speaker 1: I guess right. So the amazing thing to me about
Speaker 1: this story at this point is that you know, Anne
Speaker 1: gets her wish, and be careful what you wish for,
Speaker 1: because now there's no one to guide her and to
Speaker 1: keep her from making truly calamitous decisions. Making a calamitous
Speaker 1: I don't I think she wanted to make more money
Speaker 1: so she didn't care how she did it. I mean,
Speaker 1: don't you think it was in her blood? She wasn't
Speaker 1: making enough money to carry the gallery And now that
Speaker 1: she had gotten this job and this power, and pushed
Speaker 1: aside any chance of these other artists coming in also
Speaker 1: having artists leave because of her. Stephen Corn gone, wow,
Speaker 1: when did that happen? I think redwayd I think she
Speaker 1: was pushed out of Stephen Corn right away because they
Speaker 1: never liked her. Joe Stevens got an earful of Larry
Speaker 1: Reuben's fury as Stevens drove Larry across town that day.
Speaker 1: We're coming back from Frank Stella's studio and you got
Speaker 1: a call. It might have been a treasury spoke to
Speaker 1: me and he goes, dad fucking and now he's boiling
Speaker 1: stick kill up. He says, what the are you fucking
Speaker 1: fitting me? And he just rent and raved. So he says,
Speaker 1: I says, Larry, what's going on? You know? He says
Speaker 1: that bitch, and but he didn't get into it. He
Speaker 1: just says that you'll you'll hear about it soon enough.
Speaker 1: So I had said to him, Mrs Larry, do I
Speaker 1: have to get another job? He says, I don't know, Joe.
Speaker 1: He says things are happening right now. I don't know.
Speaker 1: He didn't specified like say, if you get along with
Speaker 1: and you'll be around for a while, you know. But
Speaker 1: he was absolutely furious, and within a month he was
Speaker 1: gone and had seized power in the last ticking moments
Speaker 1: she had while that letter from Donald Save lay in
Speaker 1: Mike Hammer's inbox. With that move, she changed the course
Speaker 1: of her life and ultimately the Knodler Galleries too, But
Speaker 1: it came with a drawback. The problem was that the
Speaker 1: art market of the early to mid nine nineties was
Speaker 1: terrible like all her rivals, and needed top quality art
Speaker 1: to sell. It wasn't so easy to find, especially for
Speaker 1: a dealer who lacked a lifetime of friendships with famous artists.
Speaker 1: Anne's predicament was actually worse than it seemed. Her harsh
Speaker 1: personality and the swiftness with which she had grabbed her
Speaker 1: prize had alienated many of the galleries living artists, along
Speaker 1: with the estates that represented deceased ones. The Adolph Gottlieb
Speaker 1: Foundation was alarmed, so was the David Smith Foundation, the
Speaker 1: Robert Motherwell Foundation, and the Richard Deepencorn Foundation. Upon Anne's coup,
Speaker 1: they all left the gallery. Joe Stevens recalls Anne's rise
Speaker 1: to leadership with mixed feelings. She became an officer of
Speaker 1: the company. You know, she became like a vice president,
Speaker 1: so she changed. She had authority to me, she just
Speaker 1: became bitchy because she knew who she was. She sold
Speaker 1: a lot of artwork. She was a big time salesperson.
Speaker 1: I had really good working with her in the very beginning,
Speaker 1: and then she became the boss. She never really said
Speaker 1: nothing much to me in the beginning because she knew
Speaker 1: I knew my job I do. I took care of everything.
Speaker 1: I took care of everything that had to be taken
Speaker 1: care of. I was the top sergeant in that place,
Speaker 1: and it's in physical I took care of it, the
Speaker 1: building everything. If a window cracked, I had have it fixed,
Speaker 1: the air conditioning. I did it all. But my main
Speaker 1: job was I was the shipping manager and the head
Speaker 1: preparative of all the artwork. I don't care if you'd
Speaker 1: the precedent to company. I deserve respect. I take care
Speaker 1: of this whole gallery from the minute it opens to
Speaker 1: the minute it closes, and I handle all the art work,
Speaker 1: every bit of it. In that capacity, there was a
Speaker 1: lot that Joe would see as the gallery began to
Speaker 1: sink and money became an issue. Even as Anne began
Speaker 1: wielding her new power. As noted as director, sales were plummeting,
Speaker 1: and aggressive and ruthless tactics had pushed away the gallery's
Speaker 1: best clients and the staff were turning against her, and
Speaker 1: Friedman was now totally on her own to decide which
Speaker 1: artists to promote and sell. Her standards became the galleries standards.
Speaker 1: Her eagerness to close these deals conveyed a clear message, sell, sell, sell,
Speaker 1: no matter what. This guy, I think his name was
Speaker 1: Buddy Yorkin, he used to be a directive of like Bewitched.
Speaker 1: He bought this Pollock. Now, if you remember Michael's you
Speaker 1: go back when Cardier was sending out empty packages so
Speaker 1: people don't have to pay taxes. Absolutely. Okay, here's the
Speaker 1: scam that Joe is referring to. In five Cardier, the
Speaker 1: world famous jewelry brand, was helping its customers evade sales tax.
Speaker 1: At the time, those taxes in New York City were
Speaker 1: eight point to five. Out of state buyers were exempt
Speaker 1: from those taxes. So the scam was when a customer
Speaker 1: came in and purchased an expensive item, Cardier would ship
Speaker 1: an empty box to a bogus address and the customer
Speaker 1: would walk out of the store with their merchandise, and
Speaker 1: it worked for a while. Time Magazine reported in April
Speaker 1: five that at least two hundred and sixty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in taxes when unpaid on a hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: sales over three years. Similar scams at the time were
Speaker 1: estimated to have cost New York State and local governments
Speaker 1: more than a hundred million and tax revenue annually. Well,
Speaker 1: this guy here had to go and delivered his painting
Speaker 1: to Kauai, Hawaii. I did. I jumped on a plane
Speaker 1: in North flew nonstopped to Hunold, got in another plane
Speaker 1: and flew to Kauai and delivered. It took me seventeen hours,
Speaker 1: seven million dollars. You know why because she say four
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in taxes by me delivering It was your
Speaker 1: sense that that was common place at er No. I
Speaker 1: did it once, and I said I'll never do it again.
Speaker 1: In the aftermath of Larry Reuben's departure, the changes at
Speaker 1: Knodler were profound, with the gallery still struggling through tough times,
Speaker 1: and became more demanding and sharp tongue, even imperious. Even
Speaker 1: Michael Hammer, the gallery's owner seemed to defer to Anne
Speaker 1: more often than not. Anne was always screaming at everybody.
Speaker 1: One staffer recalled, always screaming for himI Andratti, her assistant.
Speaker 1: If she didn't have the right pen, she would call
Speaker 1: to himaid to get her more. Anne's personal assistance came
Speaker 1: and went in dizzying succession. If you unwrapped her sandwich,
Speaker 1: she wouldn't eat it, says one former assistant. If you
Speaker 1: answered the phone in the wrong way, she would pounce
Speaker 1: on you. One woman was fired after three days for
Speaker 1: having too strong an Eastern European accent, a staffer recalled.
Speaker 1: Another lasted two weeks for being too young and inexperienced.
Speaker 1: So the next assistant they hired was older, in her forties.
Speaker 1: She was fired after a few months because Anne seemed
Speaker 1: threatened by her. One staffer recalled that she and her
Speaker 1: colleagues kept a list of all the assistants who came
Speaker 1: and went during the years she was there. As she said,
Speaker 1: if you made it past the hazing rituals, you became
Speaker 1: part of this dysfunctional family. The most memorable of that
Speaker 1: long line of the demoralized was a fragile Southerner straight
Speaker 1: out of a Tennessee Williams play and would call her
Speaker 1: five or six times a day. One Stafford recalled, they
Speaker 1: would be crying and screaming, and Friedman's Nodler gallery was
Speaker 1: in free fall. Help would come not long after Anne's
Speaker 1: ascension at a Soho art gallery opening, surprisingly in the
Speaker 1: form of a demure Mexican art dealer in her mid
Speaker 1: forties named La Rosalis. Anne had never met Rosales, and
Speaker 1: upon learning that she had something to do with the
Speaker 1: gallery and Great Neck Long Island, she might have given
Speaker 1: the woman a pain to smile and moved on. But
Speaker 1: Rosalves had sailed up to Anne on the arm of
Speaker 1: the Noodler's own himI Andrade, and so Anne was intrigued.
Speaker 1: From such a casual meeting, the whole art market would
Speaker 1: be seismically altered, leaving the Knodler itself devastated and ultimately doomed.
Speaker 1: Depending on who you asked him, Andrade was either a
Speaker 1: long trusted employee of the gallery, harmless and endearing, or
Speaker 1: an agent provocateur who saw a way to put Ann
Speaker 1: Freedman together with Gia Rosalees, ensuring that all three of
Speaker 1: them would profit from their endeavors. Oh please that's not
Speaker 1: a connection. I mean, that's just trying to push the
Speaker 1: guilt onto this poor, uneducated sweet man. It has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with I mean, Anne would say that, of course,
Speaker 1: but I take your point. I mean, as as she
Speaker 1: was just just naming someone else besides her. Okay, he
Speaker 1: introduced her. So what she made the judgment? She that's right,
Speaker 1: She just nothing else. I mean it was totally her call.
Speaker 1: Next time on art Fraud, she swears that she didn't know,
Speaker 1: which seems hard to believe. Should she have known? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe from the beginning she knew these were fakes.
Speaker 1: They had no provenances. She made up provenances. Every Day,
Speaker 1: Art Fraud is brought to you by I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Cavalry Audio. Our executive producers are Matt del Piano,
Speaker 1: Keegan Rosenberger, myself, and Michael Shnayerson. We're produced by Brandon
Speaker 1: Morgan and Zach McNeice. Zach also edited and mixed this episode.
Speaker 1: Lindsay Huffman is our managing producer. Our writer is Michael Shnayerson.
Speaker 1: The Gangster Chronicles podcast is a weekly conversation that involves
Speaker 1: around the underworld the criminals and entertainers to victims crime
Speaker 1: and law enforcement. We cover all facets of the game.
Speaker 1: Gainst the Chronicles podcast doesn't glorify promotilised activities. We just
Speaker 1: discussed the ramifications and repercussions of these activities. Because after Wall,
Speaker 1: if you played gamester games, you are ultimately rewarded with
Speaker 1: Gagster prizes. Our heart ready you dosmember one for podcasts,
Speaker 1: but don't take our word for it. Find against the
Speaker 1: Chronicles podcast, my Heart radio app or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcast. Give us silver attention. We need everything you've
Speaker 1: got Fast Waiting on Reparations. We beat the podcast two
Speaker 1: it in every Thursday politics and wordplay. We fight for
Speaker 1: the people because they got us in the worst way,
Speaker 1: from the Hill Cooper, the Bombay to Kunta, from the
Speaker 1: left on Clay to what the neo kan said every conversation.
Speaker 1: And to break us off with some break because we're waiting.
Speaker 1: Listen to Waiting on Reparations and I Heart radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black
Speaker 1: Effect presents I didn't know, maybe you didn't either, but
Speaker 1: the history of black people ain't rooted in slavery. Oh no,
Speaker 1: it's royalty, not despair. Beat out here and every day.
Speaker 1: In February, I will give you a Black history fact
Speaker 1: that I didn't know and maybe you didn't either. It's
Speaker 1: a rugged, ratchet, real baistic look at history. Listen so
Speaker 1: I didn't know, maybe you didn't either. On the Black
Speaker 1: Effect Podcast Network, our Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or
Speaker 1: just wherever you get your podcasts from.