Art Collections And Collectors

Early news of New York's November auction season suggests that private collectors will continue to cash in on their art or sell it to benefit charitable causes instead of donating the art to museums. The 1986 income tax law, which decreased deductions on art's appreciated value, triggered the trend. Escalating art prices have further discouraged gifts to museums, even on the part of longtime museum supporters.

A rose-period cafe scene by Pablo Picasso sold Wednesday night for $40.7 million--the third highest auction price ever paid for an artwork. The buyer was philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg. "Au Lapin Agile," a 1905 portrait of the young Picasso as a harlequin, had been rumored to go even higher, possibly exceeding the record $47.9 million paid last May for "Yo Picasso," another early self-portrait, and even surpassing the $53.9 million commanded by Vincent van Gogh's "Irises" two years ago.

Retired industrialist Norton Simon has resigned as president of the Norton Simon Museum and was succeeded by his wife, actress Jennifer Jones Simon, museum officials announced late Wednesday. The 82-year-old Simon also resigned as a member and trustee of the museum. The resignations were effective last Friday, a written statement released by the Pasadena museum said.

Norton Simon, the retired industrialist, has quietly dropped his widely publicized offer to donate his famed art collection to UCLA, it was disclosed Tuesday. The collection, which includes a large number of Old Masters and has an estimated value in excess of $750 million, is one of the most coveted private collections in the world, and the termination of the proposed gift to UCLA will raise new speculation about its ultimate home.

Walter H. Annenberg, publisher, philanthropist and former ambassador to Great Britain, has decided to bequeath his celebrated art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The collection of more than 50 paintings, which is one of the most valuable in private hands, is said to be worth about $1 billion. "It's a stupendous event. We are overwhelmed by the gesture," William H. Luers, president of the museum, said in a telephone interview.

AT Patti and Stanley Silver's house in Beverly Hills, a Picasso portrait hangs in the entryway next to a goofy statue of a corpulent butler. In the backyard, a museum-quality bronze by Lynn Chadwick stands just steps away from a batting cage and a trampoline. The downstairs bathroom has a soft sculpture of a man caught with his pants down, and the office is lined with hundreds of baseballs and shoe-shaped snuffboxes, and a charming Henry Moore lithograph. Art? Kitsch?

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles is auctioning off the major portion of a vast collection of artwork and rare books--including a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first known book printed from movable type--to generate funds for the archdiocese's seminary system.

Having shed his sport coat, Gephard Durenberger stood in the middle of the exhibit room with his hands on his hips and a pleased-as-punch grin on his face.

What does a prominent patron of the arts wear when visitors come to see his world-class collection in his Beverly Hills home? Whatever he wants. On a warm Indian summer day, Robert Gore Rifkind, a 73-year-old retired lawyer who has acquired one of the most extensive and important collections of German Expressionist art in the world, conducts a private tour wearing a royal blue knit polo shirt, loose black shorts, tall tube socks and plastic sandals.

SAUL LEVI loves Marsha Levine. She is devoted to him. But after 18 years of sharing lives, they won't share a home. The wedge between them: all their stuff. His Wilshire-corridor condo is bursting with museum-quality graphic art, photographs, glass sculpture and ceramics -- more than 2,000 pieces packed into 3,000 square feet. The tiny toilet room of his master bath alone holds 15 paintings by Salvador Dali, Carroll Dunham and Fernand Leger. Then there's Levine.