US Attorney/curator with posters of Rothko, Bacon, deKooning and either Twombly or Clemente,
purchased by Sam Waksal with an 8.25% discount, at least.
In the grand tradition of deposed CEO's, but with downtown sensibility (and far better taste), Sam Waksal pleaded guilty to evading sales tax on $15 million in paintings he purchased through a major New York dealer. It was the old, "send it to my factory in NJ, nah, just fax the invoice there" ploy, which has been tripping up art world naifs since the 80's, at least. (Clearly, it's worth it to work it and get your 10% discount from the dealer instead.) Waksal's lawyer tells the Washington Post that his client was "not the architect of the scheme." Yow.
Since no report names all nine works involved, here it is, a greg.org exclusive:
That adds up to $14,960,000. Any guess what the last, $40,000 work could be? According to the Times, it's Richard Serra. His sculptures can go for more than $1m, but $40k for a painting is doable. What's more, these last three artists show with the Dealer. Waksal can brag about the sweet deal he got on them, all while paying the Dealer super-retail for what amounts to personal shopping.
[Update: The NYPost pegs Waksal's total at $15.31 million, which means the Serra was $350,000. That sounds like Sam didn't even get a discount on the in-house stuff. No wonder he's fingering The Dealer. Update #2: Turns out the Serra was titled, The American flag is not an object of worship. Don't let FoxNews get wind of that sale.]
