Displaying items by tag: corporate art collection

In January of this year the German state-owned bank Portigon AG of North Rhine-Westphalia, the rebranded successor of the WestLB which folded in 2012 during the financial crisis, decided to deaccession its entire art collection. The bank holds approximately 400-pieces of art, which includes works by Pablo Picasso, August Macke, Joseph Beuys, and Günther Uecker. Now preliminary measures to save the art collection of the state-owned bank, have been introduced by officials in the German state, "Monopol" reports.

The officials have presented a three-step plan devised to save the collection of Portigon, the bank considered selling its museum-quality art collection to pay back an EU bailout loan.

The renovation and expansion of the Columbus Museum of Art received a $1 million boost yesterday — a donation from JPMorgan Chase & Co. The gift honors the memory of John G. McCoy, the late patriarch of Bank One Corp., whose family has supported the museum for decades.

In addition, JPMorgan Chase is donating to the museum a work from its corporate art collection. The sculpture — "John T. Ward Transporting Fugitives in Columbus, Ohio to Freedom, 1800s" — is a showcase piece by Columbus artist Aminah Robinson.

I am standing in a private dining room on the seventh floor of the London offices of UBS, the global financial services firm. A table is set for lunch, with a menu promising bresaola with caponata followed by roast lemon sole. Before the powerful guests arrive, though, I am whisked away. As I go, my eye is drawn to some art hanging on the wall: a pair of rare, large watercolors by the contemporary Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. These are just two of the 32,000 objects that make up the UBS Art Collection, which includes paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, video works and sculptures from the last 50 years.

Corporate art collections are hardly a new phenomenon. In the late 1950s, the American plutocrat David Rockefeller decided that Chase Manhattan Bank should start acquiring art.

Over the past few months, observant Washington Post employees have noticed that familiar works of art, some deeply beloved, others as familiar as wallpaper, were disappearing from the walls of the Post’s offices. Now we know why: Graham Holdings (as the company which once owned the Washington Post is now known) has decided to sell much of the corporate art collection begun by former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham in the 1970s. The company is offering the collection, which is strong on works by local Washington artists, for what it says is a reduced rate to employees. Proceeds will be given to TheDream.US, a scholarship fund founded by Donald Graham to help undocumented students.

“We wanted to do this as a farewell gesture to Post employees and to give corporate and newspaper employees an opportunity to own artworks they have enjoyed and loved,” said Rima Calderon, vice president for Communications and External Relations at Graham Holdings.

The German power company EON SE announced that it will sell Jackson Pollock’s “Number 5 (Elegant Lady)” on May 13 at Christie’s in New York. The work, which was painted by the Abstract Expressionist master in 1951, is expected to fetch between $15 million and $20 million. Proceeds from the sale will support EON’s art and culture spending for the next few years. The company currently owns around 1,800 artworks and boasts one of the most important corporate art collections in the world.

The Pollock painting was acquired by EON’s predecessor company, Veba AG, from the German art dealer Alfred Schmela. Schmela had purchased the work from New York’s Knoedler Gallery in the 1970s. The work has hung in the Museum Kunstpalast next to EON’s headquarters in Dusseldorf since 2001. EON, which became Germany’s largest utility provider in 2000, has been forced to cut costs as renewable power sources have gained popularity, significantly lowering the company’s profits.

Before its sale in New York in May,  “Number 5 (Elegant Lady)” will be exhibited in Hong Kong and London.