THE JOKES ON...

“Recession? What recession?” Barbara Gladstone, Richard Prince's dealer since 1988, said jokingly as she was leaving Sotheby's salesroom. Seems the jokes on her! Ever since art-industry newsletter the Baer Faxt made the pithy announcement that “Richard Prince is working independently,” the rumor mill has been in the kind of overdrive that would befit the 1980s-era soap. Some say Prince sold paintings out of his Guggenheim show directly to billionaire Ukrainian collector Viktor Pinchuk. Others say Larry Gagosian took a commission on the deal. Indeed, word has it that Gagosian Gallery has lined up an exhibition in Rome. Although the gallery would not confirm that Prince had joined the roster, one of its senior directors was willing to assert... A new gallery with a new tier of collectors can take an artist up an echelon.