Trevor Titman

L’Homme qui marche (The Walking Man)  by Alberto Giacometti became the most expensive piece of art sold at auction On Feburary 3, 2010.  The  amazing price of $104 million is more impressive considering that there are six copies of the same sculpture.  The combined value of the six walking men at the current auction rate is $624 million.  when I was looking into who the other owners of the L’Homme qui marches were I saw that Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo NY was an owner.  Dying American cites seem to have impressive art collections, acquired from a long history of wealthy industrial patrons from years ago.  The question that came to my mine was couldn’t Buffalo do a lot more with $104 million than with a  single sculpture  in a museum?  Currently Buffalo is a suffering city with an impressive art museum on the path to becoming a dead city with an impressive art museum.  this is sort  of like burring someone with all their valuable jewelry.  Not a wise use of resources I think (think Egyptians).

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery has not been generating enough money for the upkeep of the museum so they have already started Deaccessioning some of their collection.   In 2007 the museum sold a Roman era bronze sculpture of “Artemis and the Stag” which went for $28.6 million.  So selling L’Homme qui marche could be possible.

What to do with the money if the sculpture is sold?  I think something should be done with the money to try to economically stimulate Buffalo and keep with an art theme at the same time.   After reading about Buffalo I have an Idea what I would do.  Buffalo has become one of the fastest shrinking cities in the United States over the past 50 years so there are many structures that are not used as much or at all from the time when Buffalo was a major city.  One of those structures is Buffalo Central Terminal.  An impressive Art Deco train station that has been abandoned since 1979.  I think the building could be purchased very cheaply when reviewing past sales.  With the building renovated the main terminal could be turned into art galleries and the 15 story office tower could be rented out to provide income for the museum.  I think having a large art museum at the ground floor would be a major value added for the offices enabling the museum to charge premium rent.  Inspiration for this project comes from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.  This project  could create a cultural draw to the city in the same way the Guggenheim Museum helped the industrial Spanish city of Bilbao.  All this could be done with the sale of one six foot sculpture.

Giacometti thought of the walking mans stride as a symbol of an a humble ordinary mans own life force.  Maybe the walking man could be uses to make a stride to maintain Buffalo’s own life force.

Just my personal thoughts.