Jeff Koons’ art dealer: Paying $13M doesn’t get you a rush job By Julia Marsh October 16, 2018 | 8:00pm | Updated Modal Trigger Jeff Koons with one of his sculptures AFP/Getty Images More On: jeff koons 'Die Hard' producer: Jeff Koons and art dealer swindled me too Jeff Koons, art dealer running Ponzi scheme: investor Divisive Jeff Koons art visible from million-dollar NYC pad There's a 45-foot-high ballerina in Rock Center Jeff Koons will not be rushed — not even if you’ve paid him $13 million. That’s the message the balloon animal-sculptor’s art dealer, Larry Gagosian, has for a hedge funder who coughed up the whopping sum for three works. Buyer Steven Tananbaum says he’s been waiting since 2013 and in April the head of the $24 billion GoldenTree Asset Management fund sued Gagosian and Koons in Manhattan Supreme Court. But Gagosian says Tananbaum should have expected the delays. Tananbaum is a “highly sophisticated art collector” who knew Koons’ reputation as “a perfectionist who often takes years to make” pieces, Gagosian argues in response to Tananbaum’s suit. see also Jeff Koons, art dealer running Ponzi scheme: investor “Tananbaum is a prominent hedge fund manager, a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, and a sophisticated art collector who regularly invests in exclusive works of fine art,” Gagosian’s attorney Matthew Dontzin notes in court papers. “Mr. Tananbaum was being advised by one of the world’s leading art advisors and fully understood that (i) Mr. Koons is a perfectionist who often takes years to make each sculpture; (ii) Mr. Koons provides only estimated completion dates for the sculptures; and (iii) those estimated dates are often extended by multiple years,” Dontzin adds in the motion to dismiss the suit. Tananbaum first signed a purchase agreement for an 8.5-foot-by-5.4-foot magenta, polished steel sculpture called “Balloon Venus” in September 2013. He put a $6.4 million deposit on the piece for an expected completion date of December 2015, his suit says. see also ‘Die Hard’ producer: Jeff Koons and art dealer swindled me too Tananbaum’s also been waiting since 2016 for two other pieces — titled “Eros” and “Diana”– worth a combined $14.5 million. He’s paid $6.65 million toward the total cost. His suit also accused Koons and Gagosian of running a “Ponzi scheme” by using “new money to “pay old obligations.” The duo bleed “collectors of deposits and payments by drawing on their funding without supplying a product in exchange,” Tananbaum charges in court papers. The sculptor and his dealer enjoy one of the most successful relationships in the art world. Koons’ “Balloon Dog” sold for a record $58 million at Christie’s in 2013 and Gagosian’s 16 galleries yield a reported $1 billion in annual sales. Tananbaum’s attorney Shannon Rose Selden said, “While good art takes time, Gagosian took millions in payment and in return has delivered nothing but years of unexplained delay. Their ‘pay now-deliver someday’ approach is bad for everyone who buys art, and Mr. Tananbaum is determined to enforce the rules that prohibit it.” https://nypost.com/2018/10/16/jeff-...medium=site buttons&utm_campaign=site buttons
Koons' stuff is hideous. $13MM for the blue glass shit should be grounds for a psych-hold. He is skilled (Popeye sculpture), but WTF.
https://news.artnet.com/market/artnet-news-top-10-most-expensive-living-american-artists-11863 "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." - Margaret Wolfe Hungerford ( Molly Bawn 1878)