N.Y. Art Show Features Lauder, Big Money, Quick Sales (Update1) 2006-02-23 16:25 (New York) (Adds Hart's show in ninth paragraph, updates sales in last three paragraphs. Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff write about art for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are their own.) By Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Minutes after doors swung open at New York's Art Show last night, Miami real estate developer Marty Margulies, who owns a private museum, paid $10,000 for an Alec Soth photograph of a banged-up boxer. A 2006 painting by 34-year-old artist Rebecca Campbell went for $25,000. A suite of 10 photographs by Gregory Crewdson sold for $175,000. ``We're getting the right kind of people for opening night,'' said dealer Roland Augustine, chairman of the Art Show committee. Red dots signifying sales popped up on walls all over the Park Avenue Seventh Regiment Armory. The annual Art Show, organized by the Art Dealers Association of America, is the oldest art fair in the U.S. The offerings of this edition, the 18th, are more enticing than in recent years, collectors said. ``There are a lot of good works,'' said Donald Marron, former chairman of Paine Webber Group Inc., as he raced through the 70 booths with Matthew Armstrong, curator of Lightyear Capital, Marron's private equity firm. The opening party, with tickets ranging from $150 to $2,000, benefited Henry Street Settlement, a social-services agency on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Regular $20 admission tickets for the duration of the fair, which runs through Feb. 27, also benefit Henry Street. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is the main sponsor. Opening Crowd A crowd of 2,200 wound around the armory aisles. They were sipping champagne, air kissing and admiring the diamond brooches, facelifts and de Koonings. Familiar faces included collector John Thain, who by day runs the New York Stock Exchange; real estate developer Aby Rosen, dressed down in black jeans; Loews Corp. Chief Executive Officer James Tisch; and Estee Lauder International Chairman Ronald Lauder. Kitty Carlisle Hart, the 95-year-old performer who has a show at the Regency hotel next week, created a stir in the lobby. Meanwhile, Aerin and Ronald Lauder trekked around, looking methodically at most everything on view. ``We love art,'' said Aerin Lauder, who is an Estee Lauder senior vice president and Ronald Lauder's daughter. The Art Show doesn't try to compete with art fair franchises such as the flamboyant Art Basel, which involve hundreds of galleries and a rigorous party schedule. The focus at the Art Show is on the dealers and their wares, ranging from the 19th to the 21st century, with an emphasis on secondary-market modern and historical art. Abstract Expressionists This year's edition is particularly strong on postwar classics and contemporary art, a growing trend that started a couple of years back. Two showstoppers came from artists who made their name in the testosterone-heavy Abstract Expressionist generation. San Francisco's John Berggruen Gallery is offering a 1977 Willem de Kooning painting, a web of orange and greens, for $6 million. Around the corner, Knoedler & Co. has a seductive dark blue 1949 painting attributed to Barnett Newman. At Newman's first gallery show the following year, he sold one painting, another was vandalized and he netted $84.14. At his next show, he sold none. Newman was not prolific, and his paintings rarely come on the market. Knoedler is asking $14 million for the work. Berry-Hill One booth that wasn't getting much attention was Berry-Hill Galleries. It filed for bankruptcy in December, unable to repay a $20 million loan from an art financing company. ``Our problems are behind us,'' co-owner James Hill said, standing in front of his empty booth, tucked away in the corner of the armory. Audrey Rosenman, honorary chairman of Henry Street Settlement, said the fair already had grossed $1 million. ``It's an evening everyone loves,'' she said. ``My friends plan their vacations around it. The art is great. The food is great. I am not biased.'' By noon today, when the show opened to the public, much of the art was accounted for. ``We sold everything we had except for one painting,'' said Ethan Sklar, director of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. PaceWildenstein, which mounted a one-man show of Alex Katz, had sold half of its 12 paintings, priced as high as $180,000. Susan Sheehan Gallery sold a third of its offerings, including a group of four de Kooning prints for $50,000. --With reporting by Katya Kazakina in New York. Editors: West (jto). Story illustration: For art-price indexes from Art Market Research, see {ALLX ARTQ }. For the Web site of the Art Show, see http://www.artdealers.org/artshow/henry.html. For more news about art, auctions and collectibles, see {MUSE }. To contact the reporters on this story: Lindsay Pollock at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com; Philip Boroff in New York at (1)(212) 617-2602 or pboroff@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at (1)(212) 617-3486 or mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net [TAGINFO] LEH US CN EL US CN 9372Z US CN 78164Z US CN NI MUSE NI CULTURE NI ART NI IMAGING NI AUCTION NI RET NI ENT NI LEI NI FIN NI SCR NI NYSE NI GEN NI CA NI METRO NI NYC NI NY NI US #<551666.162549.2005-11-10T14:40:00.25># -0- Feb/23/2006 21:25 GMT