Pied Piper  Last month at New York's Fashion Week, Hirst launched a line of clothing that is part of the Warhol Factory X Levi's label from Levi Strauss & Company, to be sold at select retailers such as Fred Segal, Barneys New York, and American Rag. Playing off the publicity surrounding For the Love of God, some items will feature miniature crystal skulls on black denim. Clearly, Hirst has become more than a famous artist-he has become a global brand. "It's quite true," says the artist's business manager, Frank Dunphy. "Damien is very aware of his brand potential." (http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2367) Until two weeks ago, everyone imagined that Hirst shows sold out and that there were long waiting lists for his work. Then the Art Newspaper published details of White Cube's inventory of Hirst pieces in stock. This revealed that many of the works from his last exhibition, Beyond Belief, last summer f a i l e d t o s e l l. (-) In recent times, some heavily invested Hirst buyers, such as Helly Nahmad, scion of the world's richest family of "specullector"art dealers, have sold up. This would explain why Sotheby's stated that its ambitious Hirst auction would target new buyers from Asia and the Middle East. But the leaked inventory has put a spanner in their well-oiled publicity machine. In New Delhi, art critics and newspapers interpreted the list of unsold work as evidence that Hirst was trying to palm them off with his sloppy seconds, because Western collectors had wised up to him. (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23555605-details/Why+I+was+banned+from+Damien+Hirst｡ﾇs+若120m+gamble/article.do) 
A bubble is blown up with air, In which fine Prospects do Appear, The Bubble breaks the Prospects lost, Yet must some bubble pay the cost, Hubble bubble bubble hubble all is smoke Bubble bubble hubble bubble all is broke 
Art reflects who we are - as a society, as an individual, and as an institution. It can remind us of our collective heritage. Or hint at our future. The same goes for us -UBS. (http://www.ubs.com/4/artcollection/about-us/index.html) UBS, the largest Swiss bank, said Tuesday that it expected to cut about 5,500 jobs, including 2,600 in its investment banking unit, as it announced a first-quarter loss of about $10.9 billion. The bank also said it has a preliminary deal with U.S. asset manager BlackRock to sell a $15 billion portfolio of subprime mortgages, a clear signal the market for ailing U.S. real-estate assets is becoming more liquid. UBS wrote down $19 billion in soured American subprime mortgage securities and other investments in the first quarter, bringing its total write-downs since the beginning of the credit crisis to about $38 billion. (http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/ubs-to-cut-5500-jobs-sell-mortgage-assets-after-109-billion-loss/?scp=2&sq=ubs%205500&st=cse) In December 2007, the Arts Council of Great Britain announced the most swingeing set of cuts in its history, effectively canceling its cash flow to 185 arts organizations. A month later, the creative consultancy Arts & Business released figures showing that, as in the previous few years, private contributions to arts funding in England outstripped public ones in 2007, with a year-to-year rise of 11 percent. (-) UBS and Unilever, for instance, have poured millions into the institution's coffer, and there are some who would argue that Tate's programs have been strategically tailored to corporate needs. (Artforum, April 2008 p.337) |
