fifth avenue

Jesus Stops Traffic on 5th Ave

Filed under: Art

A row of cars waiting for a green light was concealed by four large canvases proceeding across New York's busy Fifth Ave., creating the appearance of emptiness from W. 51st St to Central Park and beyond. Artist Nelson Diaz chose Palm Sunday to reveal his latest project, "The Isolated Christ," to the people of New York. The response to this unique mix of street art, performance art and oil on canvas was nothing short of astounding.

Five years in the making, The Isolated Christ is a four-part rendering of the most famous figure in one of Leonardo Da Vinci's most recognized works. Diaz "isolated" the image of Jesus Christ from the apostles in DaV inci's "The Last Supper" and plotted thousands of points on the image by hand. Then, using advanced calculus techniques, he fed the point into an equation that exposes "hidden" four dimensional space in the original image and used the results as the foundation for his signature perspective.

The result is four faces of DaVinci's Jesus, reflecting various situations. The final canvas – transcendence – offers an obscure, almost headless presentation, signifying the departure from the norm. The meaning is left to the viewer, with the religious assuming resurrection and the atheist likely to posit obsolescence. Diaz remains coy with his intention, believing that interpretation (like faith) is a personal affair.

With half a decade spent on the vision and production of The Isolated Christ (all four paintings were completed by hand – sans brushes, literally with his fingers), Diaz spent the last few months struggling with venue. He decided last summer to skip the traditional alternatives (such as art galleries) during his protest against the treatment of art as a commodity, during which he auctioned 10 paintings on eBay for the princely starting bid of $1 each.

"The old way of doing things is dead," he explained during several of our meetings. Deep-pocketed buyers writing checks for pieces they don't understand, he believed, would not be able to sustain itself ... a lesson to which the art market was treated last September. Diaz wanted a public setting. As with his eBay experiment, he wanted to return the aesthetic to everybody, not a self-proclaimed elite.

That left only one "gallery" from which to choose: the streets of Manhattan.

Gallery: Nelson Diaz and The Isolated Christ

Tags: art, art galleries, art gallery, ArtGalleries, ArtGallery, artist, artwork, cathedral, davinci, fifth avenue, FifthAvenue, gallery, leonardo da vinci, leonardo davinci, LeonardoDaVinci, manhattan, moma, museum, museum of modern art, MuseumOfModernArt, museums, new york, new york city, NewYork, NewYorkCity, painting, paintings, st. patricks day cat, street art, street artist, street artists, StreetArt, StreetArtist, StreetArtists

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2nd Buyer Sues Over Multimillion Dollar Plaza Penthouse

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Last week we reported that Russian billionaire Andrei Vavilov, who signed a $53.5 million contract sight unseen for an ultra-luxe penthouse at New York's famed Fifth Avenue hotel-turned-apartment building The Plaza (above), sued the developers claiming the finished product was an "attic-like" tenement. Now the Wall St. Journal reports that a second Plaza penthouse buyer has filed a claim on similar grounds, alleging fraud and misrepresentation on the part of the Plaza's developer El-Ad and its real estate agents. The buyer, who has not been identified, is demanding the return of a $6.5 million deposit plus legal fees of at least $350,000, according to the complaint filed in New York Supreme Court. In a statement, El-Ad dismissed the claims as vain attempts on the part of buyers with cold feet to "back out" of their deals.

UPDATE: El-Ad has now filed a counter-suit against Vavilov for libel, seeking $36 million in damages.

Tags: Andrei Vavilov, AndreiVavilov, Fifth Avenue, FifthAvenue, New York, NewYork, Penthouse, Plaza

Russian Billionaire Sues Over "Attic-Like" $50 Million Plaza Penthouse

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Russian billionaire Andrei Vavilov, who signed a $53.5 million contract sight unseen for an ultra-luxe penthouse at New York's famed Fifth Avenue hotel-turned-apartment building The Plaza (above), is suing the developers claiming the finished product is more like a tenement. Vavilov made the purchase prior to completion of the Plaza's $500 million renovations last year based on CAD models and a video presentation, which promised the residence would be the "epitome of luxury."

However, in a just-filed lawsuit, Vavilov accuses Plaza devloper El-Ad Properties and real estate agents Stribling & Associates of pulling a "bait-and-switch" in which they secretly made "unilateral and impermissible design changes" to the plans, the London Telegraph reports. He claims they made the apartment smaller, shrank the size of its windows and lowered the ceilings turning it into an "attic-like" garret instead of an elegant aerie.

Vavilov, who reportedly made $600 million six years ago when he sold his Russian oil company, Severnaya Neft, is demanding the return of the $10.7 million deposit he has already paid out and wants at least $20 million in damages for alleged breach of contract, fraud, deceptive trading practices and negligence. A lawyer for the defendants described his claims as "baseless".

Tags: Andrei Vavilov, AndreiVavilov, Fifth Avenue, FifthAvenue, New York, NewYork, Penthouse, Plaza, Russian billionaires, RussianBillionaires

Luxury Brands Still Want NYC Addresses

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Times may be tough but that isn't stopping luxury brands from expanding their stores in New York City especially at the popular addresses of Fifth and Madison Avenues. The International Herald Tribune reports that on Fifth several new stores will be opening soon including a new flagship for Tommy Hilfiger, Giorgio Armani 40,000-square-foot palace of neutral-toned elegance at 56th Street, and Abercrombie & Fitch taking 25,000 square feet of the Brooks Brothers location at 53rd Street. On Madison, Calvin Klein has expanded and Hermes is opening a new men's store near its existing location.

Why the push on space when the economy in New York is sluggish? For luxury stores having a big store is an important part of their branding, a chance to translate the message of the label into a physical space. Having a large store with a small amount of merchandise highlighted in the store has long been the luxury model whereas stores that sell things with a lower price point often stuff the shelves and racks with merchandise. The IHT article quotes achitect Kenneth Walker, a retail design and branding expert, who says that the empty space subliminally sends a message that the store is luxurious and also the implied scarcity may increase the desire for a product. Brands also seek space on Fifth Avenue because the address alone implies luxury and even when people are shopping less a good location is seen as a long-term investment. The economy may rise and fall but the reputation of New York's famous shopping blocks remains strong for now.

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Tags: fifth avenue, FifthAvenue, luxury, madison avenue, MadisonAvenue, new york, NewYork

The 10 Richest Streets in the World

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Wealth

The Times of London has come up with a new list of the world's 10 richest streets based on property prices. The most expensive street on the globe, unsurprisingly, is in ultra-rich Monaco - Avenue Princess Grace, to be exact, where average prices run about $17,000 per sq. ft. It's a pretty safe bet that anyone with an address there is a millionaire at the very least. In second place is Severn Road in Hong Kong's Victoria Peak district (above), where the average price is about $11,000 per sq. ft. Here are the rest of the runners-up:
No. 3 - Fifth Avenue, New York
No. 4 - Kensington Palace Gardens, London
No. 5 - Avenue Montaigne, Paris
No. 6 - Ostozhenka, Moscow
No. 7 - Via Suvretta, St, Mortiz, Switzerland
No. 8 - Carolwood Drive, Beverly Hills
No. 9 - Wolseley Road, Sydney, Australia
No. 10 - Altamount Road, Mumbai, India

Gallery: World's Richest Streets

Tags: Australia, Beverly Hills, BeverlyHills, Fifth Avenue, FifthAvenue, Hong Kong, HongKong, India, London, Manhattan, Monaco, Moscow, New York, NewYork, Paris, St. Moritz, St.Moritz, Worlds Richest Streets, WorldsRichestStreets

Betsey Johnson's Apartment, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Today's home brings up the age-old question, when does a woman outgrow the love of pink everything. If you check out fashion designer Betsey Johnson's New York apartment the answer seems to be that you can live in Barbie's dream apartment well into your dotage. The aging designer is preternaturally bouncy and giddy for her age but still perhaps even she has grown weary of her two-bedroom penthouse. The loft in the Gold Coast area of Fifth Avenue is described in the listing as a "lavishly presented confection of fifties Hollywood glamour trimmed in lace, velvet, and gold tassels." Underneath there somewhere is a rather nice apartment with great views and a nice roof deck. It's just hard to see for all the flounce. It is listed at $3.6 million. The listing pics are pretty small but Radar has them bigger.

For another look at Betsey's home decorating style, check out Betseyville, her Mexican getaway home which is available for rent.

Gallery: Betsey Johnson's Pink Palace

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Tags: apartment, betsey johnson, BetseyJohnson, estate of the day, fifth avenue, new york

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Koch Sells 1040 Fifth Avenue

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

David H. Koch, number 33 on Forbes Magazine's list of the world's billionaires, is selling up to accommodate his growing family and putting his 1040 Fifth Avenue apartment on the market. The apartment occupies the entire 15th floor of the building and was once owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Koch purchased it in 1995 for $9.5-million and spent and estimated $5-10 million on renovations. He and his wife felt they needed a larger space to raise what will be their third child, though the apartment at 1040 Fifth has four bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a staff room, a library, living room, dining room, conservatory, two terraces, three fireplaces, five and a half bathrooms and a wine room. The family is moving to 740 Park, which Koch says is a duplex twice the size of the Onassis apartment. The asking price is $32 million.