Herb and Dorothy * You have to watch this...

ABOUT  Herb & Dorothy

It all began in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. A world-class contemporary art collection built by a postal clerk and a librarian that outgrew its modest home, has now spread throughout America. HERB & DOROTHY 50X50, a follow-up to the award-winning documentary HERB & DOROTHY, tells the story of a remarkable new chapter in the life of the legendary art collecting couple, Herb and Dorothy Vogel, through their historical gift project, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: 50 Works for 50 States. Sixteen years after Herb and Dorothy transferred their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art, the number of works had doubled to over 4,000. The Gallery, one of the largest art institutions in the country and where the Vogel collection was supposed to find its permanent home, found that the abundance of work was more than they can handle. And so the national gift project, which will distribute 50 works to each of the 50 states, was launched as a creative, and unprecedented solution. The story of the 50X50 gift project, one of the largest and the most significant philanthropic projects in American art history, is not just about the values of art collecting. It also reflects the far reaching impact of the Vogels humanitarian work, and the power of experimenting with a democratic process in the art world. Our new film will explore the outsized impact that these former civil servants are still having on the American art world. HERB & DOROTHY and the gift they’ve left the country are a reminder that art should never be limited to the elit few, but equally accessible to every one of us.

Invest in Art

Wealthy Eschew Equities; Will Art Benefit?
August 17, 2011 By Marion Maneker Leave a Comment
The Wall Street Journal’s Robert Frank had a story on Monday that may tell us something about the upcoming Fall auction season. High Net Worth Individuals feel burned by equity markets over the last three years. They’re taking refuge in defensive assets that all behave similarly to art:
“Today, my first principle of investing is do no harm, don’t make major mistakes,” said Mr. Mantell, president of New York-based Mantell Advisory LLC. “It’s not about chasing returns anymore. For me, it’s about real diversification and not being so dependent on traditional equities.”
After taking big risks and big losses in 2008, wealthy investors have become the Cassandras of the financial world, hunkering down with cash, gold, farmland and other safe-haven investments. Their “fear portfolios” largely protected them from last week’s market gyrations, when the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index spiked up and down more than four percent a day for four days straight.
Yet they are also imposing a national price. Recoveries are often led by the investing and risk-taking of the wealthy, and the rich have traditionally been more optimistic about the economy than everyday investors. Yet current surveys show the rich are among the most pessimistic about the economy. Rather than investing in stocks or companies that can create jobs, they are betting on continued volatility and slow growth by hoarding cash, gold and other defensive assets.
“If the wealthy run into the proverbial bunker, then the economy will falter,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, a division of Moody’s Corp. “A loss of faith in our economy can quickly become self-reinforcing and self-fulfilling.”
Once Bit, Rich Shy from Risk of Stocks (Wall Street Journal)