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New York art dealer Bernard Goldberg, who is now 80 years old, planned to exit the New York art market in 2010 with a multi million dollar sale at Christies of a good deal of his collection.
Twelve years earlier, he had sold five boutique hotels he owned in Manhattan for US$139 million to a New York Investment Bank, at the top of the market, then ploughing some of the profits into art.
With the financial crash and collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, at the time Goldberg obviously saw 2010 as a recovery year and a good time to finally retire from the business for good. Goldberg said at the time in an interview “Right now, I feel the art market is getting better and better, ” said. “This is a good time to sell.”
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Bernard Goldberg also said at the time in 2010 the sale was prompted by his age, rather than just art-market volatility. As customer appreciation for their unique taste in their chosen corner of the world of art remains strong, however, the best art dealers never really do quite retire somehow. Accordingly, after a brief retirement Mr. Goldberg reopened the gallery, which is now going full swing again.
In 2012 he had listed his beautiful East Hampton beachfront property, where on the weekends he is able to gaze at selections of his artworks, for sale for US$40 million with Sotheby’s International Realty, but for a long time it did not sell.
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Finally, as a good trader should, by 2014 he had dropped the asking price to US$29.5 million, and we now learn from the Sotheby’s International Realty web site that the house is finally under contract, though the transaction price itself is not stated.
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It is a beautiful property; the 5, 000 square foot shingled “cottage” is from the 1900’s, but totally renovated inside and out, and is perched just above the beach with 200 feet of seafront. It also has a very expensive revetment, or retaining wall, fortifying it against potential storm damage, though this is quite unobtrusively built and does not detract from the pastoral vista one bit. It even has its own generator to protect against power outages.
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Sitting on 1.25 acres on Lily Pond Lane the property is shielded from the roadway by high hedges. With six bedrooms and five bathrooms, and views of the sea wherever you turn, it is as exquisite as some of Mr. Goldberg’s art collection.
Some of the most intimate items from his current collection can be seen on his gallery’s website at www.bgfa.com/works. Two typical works are shown below.
The painting below from his remaining collection is quite lovely indeed, and not too far away in concept from the East Hampton house itself, in a way, in terms of the serenity it offers. It was painted by Prussian artist Oscar Bluemner in 1933.
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Born in 1867 Bluemner had first trained and practiced as an architect in Berlin prior to immigrating to Chicago. By 1900, he had become a U.S. citizen and lived in New York working there as an architect and, later, painted as well. He died in 1938. It is just 4 7/8th inches wide by 6 1/2 inches high but is nevertheless quite exquisite.
Second, the mahogany carving, below, was sculpted in 1920 by Jaccques Adnay and is an exceptional piece of art deco. Also just 13 1/2 inches high by 6 inches in depth it is a very intimate piece. Born in 1901 Jacques Adnay was very much a member of the French avant garde, particularly famous for his furniture designs, and he lived until 1984.
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