Howdy!

As it seems to be my mantra these days - "Sorry for the delay." But on Tuesday I went with a friend to the Iegor de Saint Hippolyte Art Auction at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. First off, y'all should get on their mailing list for a variety of reasons. A) Auctions are a hoot, especially if you have no money in your pocket. B) Two words: Open Bar. C) If you like to just gawk at people, the quality of the gawking is superlative - M. de Saint Hippolyte gets a crowd of people that you just can't find everyday. And D) Every now and again, you get to see some seriously kick-ass art.

Some of the art that sold on Tuesday follows below. But I use this as a lead in to how piss poor the Art market is here in town. If you're reading this from out of town, and have some excess cash, and know what you're doing you can get some serious bargains by buying here. Just to give you an example:

On the 17th of July 2003 Sotheby's auctioned off a lithograph called "two blacks and a white" by Ellsworth Kelly. According to their website it was 30 by 30in large, published in 2000. It sold for almost $3,165. By the way, here's a copy of the painting courtesy of Sotheby's web site:

[If the pictures don't show up, try here]

On Tuesday M. de Saint Hippolyte auctioned off a similar lithograph, also called two blacks and a white, this one 23 by 47in (or 20% larger) M. de Saint Hippolyte did not know when this one was created but he sold it for $2,070, or 35% less. Courtesy of M. de Saint Hippolyte here's a copy of that one: