Sydney Besthoff: Collecting New Orleans-style (2004)
Sydney Bestoff interview: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
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Arnaldo Pomodoro. Una battaglia (A battle), (1971). Bronze and stainless steel, 149 x 149 x 141 in. Installed in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
R. J. Preece: What do you think needs to be done to more effectively encourage patronage of modern/contemporary art in the U.S.?
Sydney Besthoff: I think art right now is having a real renaissance, in that more people are interested in it, they’re talking about it, and museums are still doing very well in terms of attendance. It’s not classed with professional football, but there is a surge in attendance. More public-interest shows. Also, the art dealers could explain their art better. That’s important.
Among the key things not talked about in the art world are the pricing arrangements, which are always confused. For example, the only national art market is the auction house system, and that is the only way that anybody who is interested can know what art is truly worth on a public basis. The art galleries price their artists’ merchandise on the basis of what they think it will bring. Frequently those prices have no relation to reality. They’re not what the artist would sell the work for in a perfect market. The galleries are asking more, and sometimes they’re asking a lot less than the public market. It is not an organized marketplace. One interesting things is that pricing is different geographically— in New York, New Orleans, Europe, and across America.
R. J. Preece: Any other ways that the modern/contemporary art market could be more facilitating to collectors?
Sydney Besthoff: As you know, the modern/contemporary art world is an elitist operation— at best. Therefore, it has to maintain its mystique as an elitist operation. If it loses that, it becomes a commodity. When you go into a gallery, and they ignore you, when they know you are interested; that’s part of the mystique of gallery shopping.
R. J. Preece: You have been ignored in galleries?
Sydney Besthoff: Everyone has been ignored in galleries.
R. J. Preece: We actually like it sometimes, maybe.
Sydney Besthoff: That’s true. But, of course, the New York galleries are notorious for this.
R. J. Preece: But in your view of art, you feel very differently. You don’t think of it as an elitist thing.
Sydney Besthoff: That’s true. I don’t, but people do. The public does. Absolutely.
R. J. Preece: What goals would you and Mrs. Besthoff like to achieve over the next five years— and more— with the sculpture garden?
Sydney Besthoff: We’d like to add a few pieces. I think we can add as many as 25 pieces to the garden. My wife thinks we can add 10. Of course, anything that we’d do would have to be in conjunction with the museum.
R. J. Preece: Do you have other collecting goals?
Sydney Besthoff: I certainly am interested in doing something for the museum on a continuing basis. We’ll have to find some categories and concepts that they feel they would like to have. On a personal basis, I now have a fairly empty plaza downstairs. And I can do pretty much anything.
Sydney Bestoff interview: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
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