86
PARTISAN REVIEW
done. Now I think I'm go ing
La
do somethin g with surrea li sm ; but
since I haven 't do ne it, there's no po int in dwe lling on ilo I mean , I
have some ideas, a few drawings.
Diarnonstein:
Leo, how do you decide wha t wo rk is shown in your
ga ll ery, and how do you decide the ma rket va lue o f a wo rk o f art ?
Casteth:
Whenever a group o f pa intings, say by Li chtenstein , is
ready- even before it's ready- we sta rt thinkin g when , how, and
where we a re going
La
show. Generall y speaking, when somethin g
new comes up , I like
La
show it in New Yo rk
La
begin with and then
it can travel
to
other pl aces. But we have done o therwise on some
occasIon s.
Diarnonstein:
Let me amplify tha t ques ti o n a bit, if I may, because
there is mu ch ta lk tha t prices are not a rrived a t necessaril y as a res ul t
o f ma rket fo rces a lon e. T here is ta lk, and I guess there has a lways
been in the world o f art, tha t sometimes the bidding up of prices
occurs, tha t there' s co llusion , and [he placing, ra ther than the
sellin g, o f wo rks of a rlo How much price manipulati on has gone o n
and still goes on ?
Cas tell i:
I would say, since you menti on the term "ma rket fo rces," that
mos t definitely these fo rces, a t least in my case, make up the prices. As
fa r as I'm concerned , wh en a new group of work comes up , it has
exactl y the same price as the p rev io us grou p . T he market fo rces may
now come a bout through the seconda ry ma rket. Dea lers do bu y
pa intings, no t onl y co ll ectors. Little by littl e, they in crease the
prices-my pri ces. It's a slow process. But th en , suddenl y, a sa le
comes about at Parke- Bernet, and a pa inting tha t I sold, say, two o r
three years befo re, for thirty thousand do ll a rs, as in a recent in stance,
shoo ts up to ninety thousand doll ars.
Diarnonstein:
Wha t pa intin g was tha t?
Castelli:
Tha t was a paintin g o f a studio interi o r of Roy's, and we
expected it to go pretty hi gh , but no t to nin ety tho usand doll ars.
Then th a t of course influences the prices o f o ther pa intings tha l I
may have or o ther dea lers may have. We look a t a pa inting and we
see tha t it's just as good o r better than the o ne tha t went fo r ninety
tho usand doll a rs.
Diamonstein:
How does tha t square with an arti st's po int of view?
L zchten stein:
I have no influence over the pri ce of the wo rk .
Castelli:
T he onl y influence you have is th a t a lways when a new seri es
comes up, we discuss the price o f each and every pa inting, and we
usua ll y pa ttern o ur prices on the previo us show.
Diarno1lstein:
Mo re and more museum directo rs point with pride to
their ability to merchandi se th eir museum and its activiti es. Mo re
