Who was under bidder in Sloate's auction on Boston CDV group?

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

Maybe I can share a few of my thoughts here. This is the kind of thread I usually like to participate in, but always as an impartial third party. Unfortunately, that is not a hat I can now wear. Clearly the piece was made to be kept together; I've speculated that when issued it was constructed to be reshot for a CdV, and I feel that it could be best preserved by leaving the mat in place and framing it. However, I know that today a display piece does not have the cache of a group of "cards".
When I first purchased this I rightly surmised that if taken apart the composite would reveal a group of Warren CdV's. When I received it everything was tightly glued together, and I decided to send it off to my conservator to clean some of the water staining and take it apart to determine whether my CdV theory was correct. What we found were eleven thinned and partially clipped CdV's, not entirely what I anticipated but close to what I hoped it would be. My partner Mark Rucker and I decided to sell it, and about that time my conservator came up with an innovative idea: instead of regluing the whole piece back together, why not take the eleven photos and remount them onto an acid free board in the same configuration as they were originally placed. That way, they could still be matted and framed or easily taken apart if the new owner preferred. Mark and I discussed this at length, and while we realized offering the group as CdV's would prove most lucrative, it could also result in destroying its integrity. But in the way it was offered, it could just as easily have been kept intact. I would be lying if I didn't admit that there was an economic incentive to market these as cards. Now I, as well as others, feel a bit of regret that this piece may be dismantled. But what's done is done, I no longer own it and I have no right to tell the new owner what to do with it. Maybe in the end it will remain as it was, but I doubt it. As I said earlier in this thread, rare pieces in all fields are being broken up today simply because they have become so valuable. Ten years ago the thought of offering this group as a complete team set would have been unthinkable, but the way people collect today has changed dramatically.