Wall $treet Folly

Video: Kiss rocker Paul Stanley on Cavuto

The heavy metal rocker's got another gig as an artist and he's doing quite well with over $2 million in sales in 2007.  He spoke to Neil Cavuto on 2/1.....

Wanna see Steve Cohen's pickled shark up close and personal?

It's now on display at the Museum of Modern art where the Damian Hirst creation is on loan from SAC Capital's boss...   

A completely different sculptural experience awaits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Damien Hirst's formaldehyde- preserved tiger shark has gone on display for a three-year term (loaned by SAC Capital's Steven A. Cohen, its owner).

For all its notoriety, the recently rebuilt 1991 work, titled ``The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living,'' is as startling a confrontation with mortality as one is likely to find this side of Hades. Floating in a glass tank whose blue-green liquid turns fluorescent in daylight, it doesn't actually look very real, but as a victim of human curiosity it elicits both sympathy and repugnance

Hirst's Dead Shark, Puryear's Stairway to Nowhere Liven Up N.Y. - Bloomberg

Did you catch VH-1's "The Fabulous Life of Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers"?

If you didn't catch the show on Thursday evening, you really should catch one of the upcoming reruns.  It was a fun watch.  Some pictures from the show are below; we'll have lots more later....

How do ridiculously wealthy Wall Street BSDs spend their cash? Find out on VH-1's 'The Fabulous Life: Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers'

What do billionaire Wall Street BSDs blow their ill-gotten gains on?   VH-1 aims to tell you, if you don't already know.  Over the weekend we saw a promo for an upcoming VH-1 show: "The Fabulous Life: Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers".  It'll air on Thursday at 11am EDT and again that night at 9PM EDT with additional reruns on the VH-1 schedule.  According to VH-1's teaser/promo, the show features ESL / Sears' Eddie Lampert, and naturally SAC Capital's Steve Cohen. It also mentions the millions raised by the Robin Hood Foundation, so we'd guess that Paul Tudor Jones is probably in there too.  Surprisingly also featured are accused perv / billionaire Jeffrey Epstein as well as besieged-by-subprime-debt John Devaney (Maybe parting with his "Positive Carry" yacht might not be such a big deal after all --- VH-1 says he has 10!).

Think stars are having all of the fun? Think again. These days nobody's making more and spending more than the buttoned-down badasses of Wall Street. From their sprawling estates and tricked-out private yachts to exotic vacation homes and multi-million dollar art collections-- these guys are living larger than anyone else on the planet. Welcome to The Fabulous Life of Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers.

Brian Hunter's energy trading competition -- as conceived in the mind of a former lady hedge fund manager turned artist

This hedge fund manager turned artist is looking for a New York gallery to represent her work, "optimally in Chelsea":

She is the pseudonymous Amanda Putty, who   says she has put her talent to work exposing the sexist behavior of her male   peers. Putty, who has worked in the HF industry for seven years but no longer   as a portfolio manager, has created about 20 works of art, which represent the   way men view women, such as baby dolls, mistresses, trophy wives, collectibles   and playthings. “My paintings depict quintessential fantasies of hedge fund   managers -- fantasies of money and power centered on women.,” she says. “I   am quite familiar with these fantasies.”

Steve Cohen's $8 million shark getting a new home

Now that his rotting $8 million shark has been replaced by its creator, Damien Hirst, SAC Capital's Steve Cohen has decided that his toothy pickled friend will get a new home: the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

This week the Met confirmed that the shark will go on view in its modern and contemporary art galleries by Labor Day weekend. It will be there for two to three years.

“When Steve Cohen acquired it, I sent him an e-mail asking if we could show it,” said Gary Tinterow, the Met’s curator in charge of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art.

Hello Norma Jean: Steve Cohen buys Warhol's Turquoise Marilyn

Eclipsing the $28 million auction record for Andy Warhol's image of Marilyn Monroe known as "Lemon Marilyn", SAC Capital's Steve Cohen bought "Turquoise Marilyn" according to his spokesman, Jonathan Gasthalter.  He's said to have paid around $80 million for it in a private transaction.

Hedge-Fund Manager Cohen Buys Warhol Marilyn Picture - Bloomberg

Steve Wynn's bad dream continues as he sues Lloyds for $54 million

Remember when casino empressario Steve Wynn accidentally put his elbow through Picasso's "Le Reve" ("The Dream") that he had agreed to sell to SAC Capital's Steve Cohen for $139 million?  A restorer who fixed the hole in the painting said that it's now worth $85 million, and Wynn filed a $54 million claim with insurer Lloyds of London which they haven't yet settled.  Now he's suing the Lloyds:

Wynn, 64, whose Wynn Resorts owns casinos in Las Vegas and Macau, is seeking documents related to the insurer's appraisal of the work, worth $139 million before it was damaged Sept. 30. A restorer said the repaired painting is worth $85 million, a complaint filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court said.

The casino owner said he hasn't been paid yet or received a counter-offer from the 300-year-old insurance market. He is seeking to compel Lloyd's to surrender its documents appraising the loss. His lawyer, Barry Slotnick, said Wynn may later sue to recover his financial loss if Lloyd's refuses to pay $54 million.

``We do believe we're entitled to the loss,'' Slotnick said in an interview. ``We have been waiting.''

Wynn Sues Lloyd's After Claiming $54 Million for Picasso Tear - Bloomberg

Maybe he'll have better luck this time: Steve Cohen buys a de Kooning for $137.5 million

After a $139 million deal to buy a Picasso from Steve Wynn fell apart after he put his elbow through the piece, Steve Cohen has stepped up to the plate with another monster priced art buy, this one for $137.5 million.  He bought de Kooning's "Woman III" from David Geffen:

It is the last painting in de Kooning’s “Women” series still in private hands. “This is arguably the most important postwar painting that is not in a museum,” Sandy Heller, an art adviser to Mr. Cohen, said yesterday. “We were in the right place at the right time. It’s our good fortune.”

Mr. Cohen, 50, has amassed a vast collection over the last six years that ranges from a Manet self-portrait to one of Jackson Pollock’s classic drip paintings to Damien Hirst’s infamous shark submerged in a tank of formaldehyde. Only last month he purchased a different de Kooning from Mr. Geffen, a 1955 landscape titled “Police Gazette,” for $63.5 million.

Landmark De Kooning Crowns Collection - New York Times

Hedge fund manager's art sale: How much would you pay for "A Hole In Your F*ckin Head"?

Hedge fund manager Adam Sender, who founded Exis Capital Management after working for Steve Cohen at SAC Capital, is putting 6 pieces of art on the block from his extensive collection next week at Phillips de Pury & Co. in New York:

The sale has sent ripples through the New York art community, where purchases by hedge-fund managers helped triple contemporary prices in 10 years. Steven Cohen, Sender and Daniel Loeb are among the most active collectors, according to ARTnews magazine. [Todd] Levin, in charge of Sender's 800 artworks, helped set a Chris Ofili record last year when he acquired a dung-and-glitter painting, ``Afrodizzia,'' for $1 million.... [Yes you read it right, it's elephant dung].

Sender, in an unusual arrangement, will pay a share of his profit to certain artists, said people familiar with the deal. In some cases, there were prior agreements to do so, they said.