Massive Links! News Edition

Mirabelle Marden and Melissa Bent via Artnet and Art Observed.

Apologies for the light posting this week.  A usual mountain of other responsibilities have come up but since we’re continuing to suffer from technical issues behind the scenes, getting posts up is taking a little more work than it normally does.

Meanwhile there’s a fair amount of art news to report.

• Rivington Arms co-owners Mirabelle Marden and Melissa Bent are dissolving their business relationship after 8 years, but it has nothing to do with the economy (or at least that’s the spin).  Given that the decision has nothing to do with slow sales, I’m sure we’ll be hearing about their new gallery ventures shortly no?  Story round up via: Art Observed.

• This week in inaccurate reporting artprice leads a story on the art market the story with the following sentence, “The impact of the financial crisis on the art market – traditionally perceived as a financial safe haven – is now clearly confirmed. A market downturn is no longer a theoretical scenario… it is a reality.”  When was the art perceived as a financial safe haven again?  As far as I know the late 80’s were very rough on the art world after the stock market crash.  Meanwhile, the New York Times reports a bunch of work failed to sell at Christies last night.  No surprises there.

• Some sucker bought a Cabbage Patch Kid Sarah Palin VP for $19,000 on ebay.   Even the worst financial down turns don’t curtail the enthusiasm blind hope brings to some markets. Via: Charles Lutz

• In crazy scammer art news I expect/hope Men’s Vogue takes interest in,  the post reports Dina Wein-Reis, an Upper West Side woman “at the center of an alleged plot to scam millions from Fortune 500 firms has at least $100 million in personal assets, with $6.5 million of it liquid.” This in addition to an art collection valued at $35 million and seven homes.  Apparently she and five others are accused of duping companies into selling them discounted items by claiming they’d be going to charities.  Instead, prosecutors say, the goods were resold for millions in profit. Meanwhile a few members of the art world elite are speaking out on her behalf.  The New York Daily News reports Whitney Museum curator Barbara Haskell is urging a judge to go easy on the woman.

“I have always regarded Dina as a person who cared about others,” Haskell wrote in a letter to Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin. “She certainly has cared about me. I am prepared to stand as a character witness should it be helpful to her.”

Not that this sentiment will reveal anything anyone doesn’t know already, but nice people steal too.   An insane number of related links at google news. Via: Sunday.