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Ok where do I start? basically we all got to the auction place at 2:05 or something yesterday. I went with Dwane and Sabina was there to meet us. We met Matty outside, Jeff came by, Lois an old and dear friend of Stephen's, plus the lovely Rafi. Now apart from these bunch of friends, that was pretty much it, except for one tall gentlemen who I immediately introduced myself to. He had an accent and was at the auction mainly because he reads up on the IRS auctions on a regular basis, so that was good. Then there was another guy wandering around looking at Stephen's work, but he left before the bidding began. And THEN there was a shyish looking black gentlemen over in the corner who never spoke, but smiled over at me which was sweet. The other people there were the tossers from the IRS plus the biggest loser BOB who had organised the whole event, poorly I might add and if I may be so bold, if I was one of his superiors at the IRS, that man would not be working for me anymore. Good god he never emailed a soul as I asked him yesterday and he said that basically people had other things to do....are you kidding me with this? fucking idiot. he also read out everything wrong and was just very unprofessional about the whole event.
Anyway who cares enough about that, I'm sure you just want to know the outcome right?
Well guess what? the little quiet, unassuming black gentlemen bought all 10 of them on aggregate for $15K.
He came straight out with it, had a bag FULL of money, the whole thing lasted approximately 10 minutes, it was surreal....
OK so it went like this, they offered everything up on aggregate, he shouted out the $15K, so THEN each painting gets offered out to anyone who wants to bid. Now most of our friends did, but they bid like $1K or $1500 on certain paintings, but of course with so few people, there was no way that anyone was going to match or rise to the $15K that was on the table, so the quiet guy got them.
It was crazy man, so I of course literally ran over to him, introduced myself and gave him one of Stephen's business cards and told him that obviously there were more pieces on the website, blah blah blah, come round for a cup of tea, blah blah blah. No I didn't do that. Anyway I asked his name to which he said Brian Kline/Klein, which seemed a little odd, you don't meet many black Americans with a last name like Kline/Klein, so I think he was giving me the name of the guy that he was representing? anyway I need to find this guy, want to know what he's about etc. I just hope he email's Stephen, that would be fab.
So yeah if you think about it, the whole thing worked out perfectly. Listen ONE PERSON bought all 10 of his paintings, now I reckon that could be a way of getting rid of cash, your basic laundering technique. You have spare cash, buy a bunch of art, then re-sell them individually later on? I don't know, who cares, listen Stephen's work is OUT IN THE BIG WIDE WORLD, that's all that matters. AND the fuckers at the I.R.S. only get $15K when they actually wanted $28K but now it's all finished, there's nothing they can do, they CANNOT go back and continue to claim from Stephen, oh no, they took 10 of his pieces, ascertaining that they would recoup their owed money from them, they didn't, tough shit losers...
It's all good, and Stephen is totally relieved and very happy. We went out for a lovely romantic dinner last night at Valdino West to celebrate, it's been a long tiring and anxious past week, so now it's nice to sit back, smile and enjoy the rest of the Christmas holiday...yay!!.
So, there you go, thought you'd like to know the outcome...
Oh yeah and also this apartment is bloody freezing, well it was. I went to Madison Avenue this morning around 8ish to get some blood taken. On the way back I asked one of the building engineers to come take a look at our heaters. Now you see we have like one long shelving unit that runs the length of the apartment that is used as a sideboard and it also covers the nasty looking heaters. BUT you can't get to the taps to check if they're on or not? so anyway this guy turns up, he has to cut a couple of holes in the top of the sideboard (that's fine), so that he can get to the valve. Which he does and hey presto, now the other heaters are on as well, and right now I can feel that the whole place is warming up, which is fantastic, dead chuffed, absolutely HATE BEING COLD.
Right so that's it people. Oh yeah funny thing when I got in a cab back downtown this morning, it was being driven by an elderly Indian gentlemen who asked if I minded him putting on some music. Of course I didn't, so he began to play this beautiful India tune to which he translated the words for me. It was great, a unique New York moment. Very cool.
Oh yeah and also I think we may be going to Costa Rica now. Well the lovely Matty has land there, nothing on it, but he does know a woman from Georgia who runs a set of apartments there that are like $60 for two a night, right on the beach. I mean come on, that's just brilliant. Also Matty has his car there, so we can borrow that, go snorkeling, get groceries, travel around, brilliant, so I'm going to book us some flights as soon as we find out exactly when we should go. I'm thinking beginning of February...
Right later people.
