Art Imitates Life for Lehman CEO

In the midst of a crumbling economy and tight credit markets, one of the financial world's most storied brokerage firms collapsed. Now, that firm's infamous CEO has taken another public hit -– this time in the slumping art market.

Embattled Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld, pictured, and his wife Kathy, a trustee at the Museum of...

Embattled Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld, pictured, and his wife Kathy, a trustee at the Museum of Modern Art, were the sellers behind 16 drawings at an auction at Christie's on Wednesday night. The drawing "Woman" by artist Willem de Kooning was projected to sell for between $3 and $4 million but instead attracted a top bid of $2.4 million.

(Getty Images/CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2008)
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At a sale Wednesday night at New York's Christie's auction house, 16 post-war drawings owned by Lehman Brothers chief executive Richard Fuld and his wife Kathy were sold separately for just over $13.5 million. Christie's had initially estimated the collection would sell for between $15 million to $20 million total.

The relatively lackluster results for the Fulds' sales -– which included three drawings that sold for more than $2 million –- matched much of the rest of the auction. Though hundreds packed the Christie's showroom, bidders weren't too quick with their paddles: More than half of the 75 pieces on the block Wednesday night failed to meet their auction targets, Christie's officials said.

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Amy Cappellazzo, the International Co-Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at the auction house, said that, given the current financial crisis, she was thrilled that people showed up to buy art at all.

"It would be really unreasonable to think that we would be immune," to the financial markets' misery, she said.

The sale comes a week after Lehman Brothers -– which is now largely owned by the U.K. financial firm Barclay's -– announced that Fuld would be stepping down as Lehman's chief by the end of the year. Fuld, through a spokesman, declined a request for an interview. Kathy Fuld did not respond to a request for an interview.

Kathy Fuld, who is a trustee at the Museum of Modern Art, told the New York Times that the sale of the drawings was unrelated to Lehman's woes.

"I've been selling things for the past few years, but nobody cared until now," she told the newspaper.

How much the Fulds will actually care that the collection sold for millions less than expected, remains to be seen: Though Fuld will be out of a job soon, he's still due for a six-figure payday. While a spokesman said that Fuld will not claim any severance or bonus when he departs Lehman, according to David Schmidt, a senior consultant at the compensation consulting firm James F. Reda & Associates, Fuld will receive a pension of approximately $759,000.