Intrigue

In another life I want to be an art detective. First, I would get a PhD in art history, monitor the Art Loss Register and jet set to art museums and estates when works were stolen. I would then proceed to ever-so-chicly recover the stolen pieces while wearing designer pumps and Jackie-O sunglasses.


Since I am not on my way to that future, I just enjoy reading articles about art theft. Who steals art? Why? Where do they put it? I really wish I knew.


Today I stumbled on this story of a slightly different vein, but nevertheless incredibly intriguing. Get this - In May the record of the most expensive piece of work created by a living artist was shattered. Previously, the record was held by Jeff Koon's Hanging Heart which sold for $23.2 million.





But, in May a Russian billionaire paid $33.6 million for the work below titled Benefits Supervisor Sleeping. Who was the work by? Sigmund Freud's grandson, Lucien Freud.

Now here is why I am fascinated by the art world: So, apparently Lucien also painted a portrait for an eccentric rare books dealer named Bernard Breslauer. Bernard died in 2004. A curator was researching Freud and looking to create an exhibit of his works when it was discovered that Breslauer destroyed the painting because of Freud's "unsightly depiction of his double chin."

That is mind blogging. Breslauer commissioned the best realist painter in the world to do a portrait expecting that he would show a little grace on the double chin? A painting worth some $30 million destroyed by its commissioner because of the pudge. I love art.