Consultant guides unsure collectors at Art Basel
Posted on Mon, Dec. 03, 2007
By LYDIA MARTIN
It's not an exaggeration to say that Kimberly Marrero, a New-York based art advisor, will barely eat or sleep during the torrent of contemporary art that will rain down on Miami this week during Art Basel.
She'll be in town to buy, buy, buy. There are a dizzying 20-something alternative fairs running concurrently with the main event at the Miami Beach Convention Center this year. Even to hard-core art lovers, the idea of catching the vast Basel, plus all its satellites, is plain preposterous. But Marrero vows to eyeball every show.
She's not a wealthy collector who can drop $50,000 for the latest curio by an ascending name from some edgy corner of the world. But many of her clients fit that bill. Marerro will be leading several of those clients, from Miami, New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Arizona, through endless booths. Talking them into, or out of, major purchases. She'll be their walking and talking art-history lesson, their shrink, their financial consultant. That best girlfriend you drag through the mall when you need help deciding on a special pair of shoes.
And Marrero won't be alone. There are no hard numbers available, but insiders say at least 50 percent to 60 percent of the folks doing the deals during Basel are not the collectors, but their educated, plugged-in personal shoppers. Call them art advisors or private curators, but their ranks are surging in today's booming art market, driven more and more by new collectors who have new money to spend but lack the savvy to buy the right work or position themselves for the best returns.
Art advisors study the market, research the work, know if a certain artist is on the way up, or not. The best ones will know exactly what each gallery will offer at Basel and the other fairs before any doors open. And they'll know how low you can take a dealer this week on the price of a particular piece.
''I have staggered everything so that one client doesn't see me trailing around with another client,'' says the high-energy Marrero, who is usually up by 4 in the morning so that she can start e-mailing artists and gallery owners in Europe.
She is not just an advisor, but a curator who puts together large projects, such as the recent Spencer Tunick installation at the Sagamore Hotel on South Beach. Images from the October installation, for which more than 500 volunteers shed their clothes, will be unveiled during the Sagamore's Basel brunch on Saturday, always one of the hottest tickets of the week.
''When I get down there, I'll first do the less glamorous work. I'll meet the crew and start uncrating and hanging Spencer's show,'' says Marrero, 40, who is also a lecturer at the Guggenheim in New York. ``Then I'll focus on taking clients through fairs. I'll cover as much terra firma as I can with them all. But I have already selected the clients I will take through First Choice [where VIPs get first crack at buying art as Basel doors open Wednesday afternoon].''
It'll be Bonnie Guren of Coral Gables, and her son Michael Stein, of Coconut Grove, whom Marrero will take by the hand first. Both have homes filled with contemporary art Marrero helped them buy.
''For at least a couple of years, I have been interested in [Dutch photographer] Rineke Dijkstra,'' says Stein, 40, managing director of a Miami real estate investment firm. 'I was in Berlin and saw her work, and I called Kimberly and said I was thinking of buying this piece. She had been advocating for it, but she said, `Don't do it right now. Let's look at the exchange rate and see if we can get a better price in New York.' ''
When Stein came home, Marrero negotiated to nab him Kora, a 60-by-50 ½ inch portrait of a teen girl from Dijkstra's famed Tiergaten series. Neither Stein nor Marrero will say what the piece cost, but a similar work by the artist might run $40,000-$50,000. Marrero usually receives a customary 10 percent of a sale as her fee.
LONG-TERM HELP
The pricier the piece, the bigger her payday. But Marrero says she focuses on the long-term, helping clients take baby steps until they get into the swing of collecting.
''You can buy some great art right now, by some amazing Miami artists, for $500. You just have to know where to go. I just took on clients the other day, a young couple, who gave me a purse of $1,000. If the chemistry is good, I won't turn down a client because of the numbers,'' says Marrero, who will tell you her business, KM Art Advisory, has not made her rich.
''I recently wanted a piece by [photographer] Hellen Van Meene and I had to pinch my pennies to buy it. But it was money well spent,'' says Marrero, who won't disclose what she paid. ``I have a very nice art collection, including a piece I bought during my first gallery job for $2,500 that is now worth $70,000. But I would say about 60 percent of my collection was gifted by artists I have worked with.''
In the last few days, Marrero has been in discussions on a piece by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugito, whose works can range from $40,000-$80,000, for another client who will likely seal the deal during Basel.
WHAT CLIENTS WANT
''I think Kimberly is brilliant. She always knows exactly what her clients want,'' says Thorsten Albertz, director of Arndt & Partner, with galleries in Zurich and Berlin, who is putting the Sugito piece aside for Marrero. ``The U.S. has many more art advisors than Europe. I guess Americans like to have a second opinion.''
Marty Margulies, one of Miami's most important collectors, says Marrero, who is his friend but not his advisor, is especially good at finding the up-and-comers.
''She combs the scene, she combs the sidewalks, she combs the galleries,'' says Margulies, who has never relied on an art advisor to help build his collection, housed in a sprawling Wynwood warehouse. ``The times are different today. There weren't nearly this many collectors involved before. You could go through a gallery leisurely. You had time to educate yourself. Dealers had time to talk to you. Now you have the hedge-fund people, all kinds of people trying to get in the game. I've been at it for a long time. I go by my own instinct.''
Stein is passionate about art. But he's not afraid to admit he doesn't have all the schooling he needs to make the kind of buys he makes.
''I trust my taste,'' he says. ``But I have an advisor in every part of my life. I have business advisors. I have a life coach. I have a landscape guy. I believe in surrounding myself with people who know a lot more than I do. Having an art advisor to me is essential, because the value in having someone who really knows the market helping you navigate it is exponentially justified.''
Stein's mother takes the relationship a step further.
''Kimberly is like the sister I never had. She leads me to everything I love,'' Guren says. ``I don't have the academic background, so I am drawn by emotion. And she understands exactly what I'm feeling. She is the best listener. And she's sincere. She has never led me to the more expensive piece.''
QUALITY OF WORK
''She is very interested in the figure,'' Marrero says of Guren while the two women give you a tour of Guren's waterfront apartment, filled with work by Nan Goldin, Peggy Preheim, Quisqueya Henríquez and others. ``She is interested, above all, in the cerebral quality of work. She likes to have a comfortable and quiet dialogue with art. She likes work that speaks to the peaceful, vulnerable quality of life.''
And when it becomes about brass tacks, Marrero handles that, too. During the first Basel fair in Miami Beach six years ago, Guren, with Marrero's help, bought a large piece by German artist Sabine Hornig (whose work usually ranges from $25,000-$35,000). It was never delivered.
''It was a gallery mistake. We paid for it, but then they promised the same piece to the Museum of Modern Art,'' says Marrero, who dealt with the drama, getting the artist to create an artist's proof for Guren.
''I wouldn't have known how to handle that,'' says Guren. ``I would never buy anything that expensive without her. But I'm learning. Today I trust myself to buy something without Kimberly that's up to $10,000. It used to be $2,500. Then $5,000, then $7,500.''
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