TRENDS - Buy Basquiat, 48.5 % Off & Perrotin's Artists' Dreams

Asher Edelman, the corporate raider turned art dealer, has dressed the windows of his Manhattan gallery in the spirit of the times: "Holiday Super Sale," one sign says. "Totally Insane!" reads another. "No Kidding!" entices the third. "All dealers are offering discounts now," said Edelman. "I am just being open about it." The sale, which runs through Dec. 21 at Edelman Arts, offers discounts ranging from 25 percent to 50 percent on works by 20th century masters.

Asher Edelman's Holiday Sale: Buy Basquiat for 48.5 Percent Off (Bloomberg)

According to Mr Perrotin, the primary goal of Artists' Dreams will be to create a private investment pool to finance the production of large-scale works by his and other dealers' artists for commercial and museum exhibitions. An elaborate sliding scale has been established to calculate the percentage of profit a gallery will make in relationship to the investors based on the length of time it takes to sell the work--the shorter the sales time, the better the gallery does; the longer the sales time, the better the investor does.

Who owns museum-commissioned works? (Art Newspaper)