I met Lisa Manzi last spring in Colrain, Massachusetts. We were both attending the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference in a B&B where we slept in cubbyholes accessible only by stepladders. We also had dinner conversations with up-and-coming poets, many whom were trying to prove they were the Alpha Poet. (This means you’ve read more poetry than anyone else and feel pretty darn smug about it.) It was during one of these dinners that I learned Lisa was a) a person who had varied interests in non-poetry-type things (ex. pop culture) and b) she was also an art appraiser by trade. So I emailed her after the auction and asked her what she thought of Cher’s art sales, specifically why the highbrow Procaccini picture (lot #43) didn’t hit its estimated price of $30-50,000 and sold for only $25,000 and the lowbrow LeRoy Neiman did so well, estimated at $4-6,000 and selling for $40,000. Lisa said the Procaccini was hurt by Sotheby’s listing; collectors would see it and figure Sotheby’s did not support the attribution (that it was a real Procaccini). She said however, that the Neiman sale price was good, that his stuff is hard to sell because they all look so similar and are there are so many.
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