In a World Rent Asunder by Protest, Kenny Schachter Goes Shopping for Art at FIAC—and Pays a Little Visit to That Jeff Koons
A Koons memorial that would have been better if it was designed by a kommittee. Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. Before I launch into a brief fair recap, some thoughts on the upcoming auctions and state of art collecting, as insignificant as it all sounds in...
Is Infantilism the Key to KAWS’s Unstoppable Rise? Kenny Schachter Peers Behind the Scenes at the London and Hong Kong Auctions
KAWS's market just keeps going. Artwork by Kenny Schachter. Whether we actually live in the wackiest, rockiest economic, social, and political time in history remains to be seen, but there’s no denying it certainly feels that way. Unprecedented art world...
Fistfights! Gallery Defections! Artist Lawsuits! Kenny Schachter on the Chaos of an Art Market Addicted to Easy Credit
Sotheby’s Easy Art Credit may cause nausea, vomiting, and bankruptcy. Use only as directed. If you can’t afford the pill, this medication is not for you! Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. On the first day back to school last week, I had lunch with dealer...
Kenny Schachter on What the London Auctions Foretell for the Art Market, and Why He Wants to Get in on the Hot Merch Action
Money was the medium, as in Damien’s diamonds; now it’s BBB (Bed Bath & Beyond-ism), with products as paint and process. Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. For the first 24 hours after I post on artnet News, I shut down all communication...
After Scooping the World on ‘Salvator Mundi,’ Kenny Schachter Has More to Reveal About the Leonardo—and Art Basel’s Biggest Deals, Too
The forced march we all love to bemoan, but always end up repeating. Art Basel is now 50 years old, though fair brass are waiting 'til 2020 to celebrate. (You get better marketing conditions by rounding off the numbers and calling it 1970-2020 in copy.) Image collage...
Where In the World Is ‘Salvator Mundi’? Kenny Schachter Reveals the Location of the Lost $450 Million Leonardo
You got your Salvator in my Kusama: What private museum is worth its weight in oil without a mirror room? Photo collage courtesy of Kenny Schachter. It’s a miracle! When I received intel from a source with deep Middle Eastern ties as to the possible whereabouts of...
Kenny Schachter Reveals the Mystery Buyer of Jeff Koons’s Bunny—and Blurts Out Other Secrets From Auction Week as Well
Steve Cohen was the belle of the auction ball after buying a certain rabbit. Animation still courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Remember Fatal Attraction’s famous bunny-burner? Well, I definitively know the identity of the bunny-buyer, and now you do too: Steve Cohen....
‘I’m the Donald Trump of the Art World,’ Sean Scully Says in His New Movie. Kenny Schachter Has a Few Other Descriptors to Add
Street Fightin’ Man: Sean Scully as Muybridge study in motion. Collage courtesy of Kenny Schachter. This is a review of the April 2019 BBC film Unstoppable: Sean Scully and the Art of Everything. Last fall I reviewed The Price of Everything. What’s next, The...
A Very Special Easter Poem From Kenny Schachter and Jeff Koons’s Inflatable Bunny
This rabbit has a poem for you. Animation still courtesy of Kenny Schachter. I used to be a toyAnd meant to bring you joyNot sure what I should call myselfAm I a girl or a boy? Are you tempted to plant a kiss?Looking for ever-lasting bliss?It’s physical, it’s...
What’s That Smell? Kenny Schachter Grooves on the Mellow Vibe at LA’s Art Fairs—While Waiting for the Big One to Hit
People seemed to really enjoy Frieze LA. Wonder why? Video still courtesy of Kenny Schachter. I cannot tell a lie (as many know firsthand—sorry): Although I was in LA at the time, I didn’t go to Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC), Spring Break, or even Felix, really,...
How Far Can a Mega-Gallery Expand? Kenny Schachter Shares His Predictions for 2019
The Hauser & Wirth Hospice. Artwork courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The Top of the World! At an altitude of 5,466 feet, the tagline of St. Moritz makes perfect sense, but it may soon be better known as the Top of the Art World. There are around 30 international...
Is the ‘Fairantee’ the Next Guarantee? Kenny Schachter Races Through Art Basel Miami Beach, Trying to Dodge the Feel-Bad Art
Kenny meets Mike. Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. In his Aesthetics (1835), the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel published a compilation of university lectures on fine art, stating: “For us art counts no longer as the highest mode in which...
Has the Art Market Reached a Stage of End-Game Nihilism? Kenny Schachter on New York’s $2 Billion Auctions
Take it or leave it, it’s our art world- Adverting Art. Photo courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Last week, in just six days of Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary auctions in New York, around two billion dollars of art was sold—with even more sales taking place...
Kenny Schachter on What ‘The Price of Everything’ Gets Wrong About the Erotic Relationship Between Money and Art
Art and money have had sex for centuries but rarely share a bed. Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The Price of Everything, the new HBO documentary from My Architect filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn, is meant to pull back the curtains on the connection...
Has Art-Fair Despair Driven Kenny Schachter Mad? He Sees Them Everywhere These Days, Even on the Train
All aboard the Eurostar Fair to nowhere, fast…no need to check-in, unpack or disembark! A new form of train robbery? Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The last round of London contemporary art auctions were down nearly 10 percent, but you can’t really...
Here’s What Really Happened With Banksy’s Art-Shredding Stunt at Sotheby’s, According to Kenny Schachter’s Source
Surprised onlookers react as Banksy's Girl With a Balloon self-destructs at Sotheby's. Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even...
Who Bought That Record-Breaking Jenny Saville? Kenny Schachter Eavesdropped at the Auctions—and Braved Frieze—to Bring You the Scoop
Jenny Saville at Sotheby's contemporary art evening auction in London.Before things even got cooking in London last week for the 16th iteration of the Frieze Art Fair and the concomitant auctions, there was the monster Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition hosted by...
While Mark Grotjahn Angles for a Megadeal, Kenny Schachter Is Dying to Make His Own Retrospective a Success
Death be not proud (it's bound to happen sooner or later). Video still courtesy of Kenny Schachter.In the waning days of summer, just when you might expect the art world to be napping beachside in the Mediterranean, guess what? There’s no rest for the weary, because...
Putting Art in the Back Seat, Kenny Schachter Goes to Venerate the Old Masters of the Racetrack at the Festival of Speed
Seventeen-time Le Mans entrant, and driver of my car, Nic Minassian. Photo courtesy of Kenny Schachter.As an isolated, overweight child growing up in Long Island with zero exposure to culture, cars were my gateway drug to art. It was the industrial design that...
Summer Shocker: Kenny Schachter Hits the Art-Gossip Goldmine… and Keeps It to Himself
You’re only as good as your last sale. Amy was on top this time, but don’t count out Loïc for long.... Illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter.I have noticed a surge in the level of homelessness in London, which was confirmed by a recent article in the Guardian that...
Kim Jong-who? At Art Basel, $165 Million Sales and Other Dizzying Disclosures Made the Rest of the World Disappear
See you at Art Basel Pyongyang 2019. Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter.Switzerland is the land of three-cheek kisses (along with Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, and Egypt), seven presidents (a collective of co-equally powered...
Wynn Some, Lose Some: Kenny Schachter on the Parade of Art and Depravity at New York’s May Auctions
It's time for someone to bone up on art-handling. Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. The latest spate of New York auctions that transpired over the past two weeks saw nearly $3 billion worth of art trading hands, a mind-boggling sum. But beware: Springtime in...
What Do David Blaine, John Currin, and a Super-Sneaker Have in Common? Kenny Schachter Reports From TEFAF New York
The TEFAF Fast Art Shoe. Illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter.If Frieze New York were more conveniently located—with all the Ubers in New York, you still couldn’t get a car out of Randall’s Island during last week’s fair—with better, broader art in a (way) more...
Kenny Schachter Gets Hot and Bothered at the Ironically Titled Frieze New York
The art world loves spontaneity... but spontaneous combustion? Video still courtesy of Kenny Schachter. While I was checking into my hotel for Frieze New York, a fellow guest made a comment about how much she liked my writing—at the precise moment my credit card got...
Get Off the High Horse, Jerry Saltz! Kenny Schachter Mounts a Last-Ditch Defense of Art Fairs
Who knew? Everyone who wins a Pulitzer gets a free horse. Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. Like Paul Revere riding into town in the dead of night to warn the colonials of the impending British invasion, Jerry Saltz rolled into the art world’s inboxes and social...
Kenny Schachter Takes a Cut-Throat Art Quiz Before Hitting Art Cologne (With a Hangover)
Did someone say "open bar"? Kenny Schachter gets rambunctious at London's annual Art Quiz. Photo by Luke Fullalove. In the brief respite between miart and Art Cologne, I was invited to join some art-world-style extracurricular activities closer to home: a charity quiz...
Kenny Schachter on miart, the Milan Art Fair So Eccentric He Might Just Want to Move In
It's not easy getting out of bed during an art-fair week. An artwork by Eva Kot'atkova at the 2018 opening of miart in Milan. (Photo by Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images) I’m like a sacrificial lamb trudging across the world to art fairs so you don’t have to. Yes, I can...
Kenny Schachter Gets Overwhelmed at Art Basel Hong Kong—and Almost Gets Punched in the Face, Too
The death of an art collector. Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. Wandering around Art Basel Hong Kong last week, I wondered what Andy would make of all this—fairs, Instagram, and the unstoppable beast the art market has become. For some perspective, his lifetime...
Kenny Schachter Tries (and Fails) to Keep His Mouth Shut at Gallery Weekend Beijing
Protect me… from the art world. Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. A few months ago, I got a direct message from an Instagram account entitled Frenchiepickles that appeared to be dedicated to a French Bulldog. Odder still than receiving a missive from a...
Has the Great Depression Struck Galleries? Kenny Schachter Ventures Among the Art Hobos at Armory Week
A hobo encamped at a Lower East Side gallery, surely a casualty of the Great Depression. Photo collage by Kenny Schachter. Just before coming to New York for last week’s art fairs, someone tried to sell me a Louise Lawler that had been marked “Lost Property” by an...
Want to Get Rich Quick? Fresh From the London Auctions, Kenny Schachter Explains How to Game the System
Be sure and catch Kenny's new instructional YouTube video. Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Where in the world have I been? It’s been a while since my last dispatch—I hope you enjoyed the break. My absence was largely down to the fact I avoided the...
Snow, Schlag, and Schnabel: Kenny Schachter’s Dispatch From St. Moritz (and Predictions for 2018)
The architect Norman Foster surveys the town of St. Moritz. Photo courtesy of Kenny Schachter. I’m no fan of Christmas, New Year’s is even worse—all the contrived peace, love, and joy is frankly too much, not to mention the practice of holiday emails that amount to...
Miami After Dark: Kenny Schachter on Disaster, Death Threats, and Killer Deals at Art Basel Miami Beach
The gang's all here—again—in Miami. Artwork by Kenny Schachter.Before heading off to Miami Beach for the sixteenth edition of the Art Basel there, I bumped into a prominent art-world public-relations exec who exaggeratedly fist-pumped in exaltation at not having to go...
Kenny Schachter Solves the Mystery of the $450 Million da Vinci Buyer—or Does He?
A tortoise and the hare for our age. All images courtesy of Kenny Schachter.What does $450,312,500, the sum paid at Christie’s last week for Leonardo da Vinci’s circa-1500 painting Salvator Mundi (the “Savior of the World”), look like? How about 55,000 Bitcoins at...
Kenny Schachter Found the Future at a Shanghai Art Fair (Even If His Kids Got Censored)
A work by Ilona Rich being installed by Adrian, Kai, and Kenny at the Art021 fair in Shanghai. Photo courtesy of Kenny Schachter.Last week there were two simultaneous international art fairs in Shanghai, one being Art021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair—the...
Kenny Schachter on Bad Behavior at FIAC and the Swindle Behind da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’
,h3> A very special episode of "Antiques Roadshow." Image courtesy of Kenny Schachter.Having just returned from Paris and the 44th edition of the Foire internationale d’art contemporain, otherwise known as FIAC, I’m left with two distinct impressions. The first is...
Sculduggery, Weak Bladders, and the Wrath of the Schnabel: Kenny Schachter on Frieze London 2017
Step right up. Image courtesy of Kenny Schachter. When I began my career, art fairs were still in the Paleolithic Age. The marquee events were Chicago (really), Cologne (really), and Basel (can you recall when there was but one?). That’s it. In a given year, attending...
In a Post-Truth Art World, Kenny Schachter Holes Up in Trump Tower, Spills the Beans on Mark Grotjahn, and Gets Arrested
An anonymous auction-dominating art dynasty. Image courtesy of Kenny Schachter. It doesn’t take much to get me out of the house, but what choice have I? Opportunities in the art world are scarce, and these days you need to chase them more than ever. The especially...
Kenny Schachter Goes for a Swim in the Summertime Art Market and Gets Stung
Kenny Schachter discovers the hard way that jellyfish and art dealers are of the same genus. Video still by Kenny Schachter. As much as global warming has disrupted the traditional cycling of the seasons, the 24/7 maelstrom that is the art market has also had an...
Kenny Schachter on Learning to Love the LA Art Scene (Except Those Wacky Private Museums)
Kenny Schachter Plank III (pace Charle Ray Plank II). Image courtesy of Kenny Schachter. I am all but Los Angeles illiterate—I have only been to the city twice, for a handful of days. I don’t go to movies, or even watch them on laptops or planes. As an...
Has London’s Auction Market Lost Its Mojo? Kenny Schachter Finds the Onetime Art Capital Down on Its Luck
Basquiat is the latest wild card in the high-stakes art casino. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. London is known for gin and tonic, Bacon and Freud, Gilbert and George, and Damien and Tracey. When I moved to the UK in 2004, London also boasted a burgeoning auction market,...
Nothing Fishy Here! Kenny Schachter Squeezes His Way Into the Thick of Things at Yet Another Art Basel
Art Sardines: The close quarters of Basel hotel living. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.Two years ago, when I was driving home from Art Basel, I suffered facial injuries in a car accident. This year, I rolled back into the art-industry town with an automotive vengeance:...
Scandal! Innuendo! Flipping! Kenny Schachter’s Inside Scoop on the May Art Auctions
Kenny Schachter flipping his two artist sons, Kai and Adrian, for love and profit. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. I probably shouldn’t give it away, but New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport is by far the easiest point of ingress and egress for New York...
To Escape the Numbing Art World, Kenny Schachter Hits the Road (and Drives Everyone Crazy)
On the road in Sicily in a 1970 Fiat Abarth Rally car. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. After Damien Hirst’s undersea extravaganza in Venice left me feeling like a splashed-on tourist at SeaWorld (albeit one with much nicer aquariums, and a different kind of whales),...
Is This Show Worth a Billion Dollars? A Few Thoughts on Damien Hirst’s New Venture in Venice
Damien and his figurehead. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Buckets of (digital) ink have already been spilled on the subject, but I’ll add more. I have pretty much seen every artwork that Damien Hirst has made, read his book On the Way to...
Poisoned Tongues and Chicken Feet: My Sojourn to China’s Rising Kingdom of Contemporary Art
The Poison Pen of Kenny Schachter (Courtesy Kenny Schachter, with Adrian Schachter) As an art lifer, I’ve begun to measure the remainder of my days by how many Art Basel fairs I’ve left to attend. The fifth iteration of Art Basel Hong Kong (or 10th if you...
The $14 Million Flip, and What the London Day Sales Foretell for the Near Future
Art musical chairs. Courtesy Kenny Schachter Imagine Janet Yellin—or the head of your respective Federal Reserve—calling to say that you’ve been granted free rein of a currency-printing press, with the lone caveat that it be enjoyed at your discretion. That has...
Kenny Schachter Gets Roasted During Armory Week… and Lives to Tell the Tale
Image courtesy Kenny Schachter Roving the art world for business and pleasure, I was en route to New York for the Armory Show and its attendant fairs and goings-on when I had a near miss with a sneering Tracey Emin, and struck a possible deal with Harry...
How I Found Sigmar Polke Alive and Well in a German Spa Town
At the Kurhaus Casino Baden-Baden with Anne Polke (second from left). Courtesy of Kenny Schachter The Museum Frieder Burda was opened by the eponymous publisher in 2004 in a Richard Meier building in the German spa town of Baden-Baden (literally “Bath-Bath”) known for...
Kenny Schachter Says It’s the End of the World and Everybody Wants Classic Contemporary
Image courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The Unquenchable Appetite for Classic Contemporary I’ve never lived through such a tumultuous period, one that compels us to tune into the news 24/7 to stay abreast of the rapidly changing global condition; the USA is giving the...