Footballer Joe Montana Takes On Dallas Auction House

Oops. Dallas’ Heritage Auction Galleries is in legal hot water again, this time over some items from football great Joe Montana.

Blockbuster’s Bid For Circuit City Ain’t Dead

Circuit City has allowed Blockbuster a look at its books. Finally. The former resisted the request of the latter, saying BBI didn’t have the financial wherewithal to be taken seriously. Major BBI investor Carl Icahn said, “I got it covered. Never you mind.” (Or something to that effect.)

Tax A Lot, DMN

A tax-minded FrontBurnervian points to the following paragraph in the news item about taxed purchases on Amazon.com:

The state’s tax-collecting agency didn’t know Amazon.com was operating a facility here until this week when The Dallas Morning News called to ask why the online powerhouse wasn’t charging Texas customers sales taxes, said Robin Corrigan, the comptroller’s team leader for sales tax policy.

The FrontBurnervian wonders: “So not only might we be stuck paying sales tax for Amazon purchases, we have the DMN to blame for it. Tattle tales. And isn’t this pretty much creating news instead of reporting it?” I see his point.

Bigwigs To Dallas Taxpayers: Let’s Run A Hotel!

Look out for that steamroller, folks. Now the Powers That Be are urging the city of Dallas–i.e., Dallas taxpayers–to own a new convention-center hotel outright, not merely finance it. The most telling part of this morning’s DMN article about the scheme came courtesy of A.C. Gonzalez, the assistant city manager. Absent city ownership, Gonzalez is quoted as saying, “the numbers did not work in regards to this particular project. We had a project that just did not pencil out.” Translation: The hotel does not make economic sense on its own merits. Is anybody besides the Observer paying attention to this?

Donde Esta El Wal-Mart? In Garland.

I heard a segment on Marketplace this morning about the re-opening of Wal-Mart in Garland. What makes it Marketplace-worthy? The store is the first in the chain to target the Hispanic population. The report reported that fresh tortillas will be available, as will Spanish-language music, movies, and games. [Insert Farmers Branch joke here.]

GodTube Gets The Goods

We’ve made mention of the Plano-based Christian video-sharing site before. Had we made more jokes about it, the jokes would have been on us. As PaidContent reports, GodTube recently got $30 million in funding from hedge fund GLG Partners. I confess that I haven’t watched a lot of the videos on GodTube, but I don’t see how they can get much better than “World’s Strongest Redneck Shares the Gospel.”

Georg Schaeffler’s Complicated Love Life

Over the weekend, a fair number of people around town received an e-mail from Erika Nazem, owner of a Plano gym, saying that she’ll soon begin shooting a reality show about her life. Our friends at People Newspapers posted the e-mail. Who cares, right? Well, the thing is, Nazem has been romantically linked to Georg Schaeffler, a man who prefers to keep a low profile, and Nazem hinted in the e-mail that he might appear on this supposed show. I profiled Schaeffler in March 2007, in a story titled “The Billionaire Next Door.” At the time, I was told that Schaeffler and Nazem were breaking up. So I called Schaeffler’s D.C.-based lawyer to find out whether Dallas’ most under-the-radar billionaire was ready for his close-up.

Says Christopher Smith: “He did end his relationship with her about a year ago. It stays mostly off but it goes back on every once in a while. Georg is incredibly disappointed and frustrated with her shenanigans. He would never be on such a show. He won’t participate. If he were on a show like this, he’d be the laughing stock of Germany.”

So the question is, why would you send out an e-mail blast that would clearly anger your on-again, off-again reclusive billionaire boyfriend? My guess is that hell hath no fury.

Eh, Nazem?

Vanity Fair Does the Hunt Story

Ever since we published our story in March about the fight inside Dallas’ wealthiest family, I’ve been waiting to read Vanity Fair’s version, written by Alan Peppard. Yes, that Alan Peppard. Sources tell FrontBurner that Peppard got permission to write for the glossy because he has compromising photos of Bob Mong doing a beer bong with Matt Leinart. Anyway, the wait is over — at least for me. An advance copy of the article from the upcoming June issue found its way to me (hi, Lizzie!). I can’t post the PDF, but I took a picture of the printout for you. You might be able to make out a red box I drew there in that second column of the opening page. That’s my favorite sentence in the whole story:

She disassociated herself from the controversies over her father’s polygamous propensities and his right-wing political views — in a self-published 1960 novel, Alpaca, H.L. proposed a Utopia where extra votes were apportioned to those who paid higher taxes — by pouring her energies into domestic life with her husband, the handsome and athletic Al G. Hill Sr., and their three children.

I’m still trying to diagram it. Wonky editing concerns aside, though, the story’s strongest point is the detailing of Al III’s financial straits. Peppard has some good numbers we weren’t able to get. But, then, our story had more sex. Which magazine did the story better? You’ll have to wait a few days to read for yourself. Hang in there, Hunt family.

Envy Alert! Very Expensive Car Available In Dallas

Get one while you can. Bentley’s resurrected Brooklands luxury car, which costs $350,000, will be on display Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Bentley Dallas on Lemmon Avenue. Just 550 copies of the 4-seat coupe (at left) will be built worldwide, and Dallasites have already snapped up two of them.

JPS Health Network’s Unique Crisis Management Style

The Star-Telegram is about halfway through a six-part series about Tarrant County’s JPS Health Network. Executives at JPS aren’t too keen on having employees read the series while at work. So what do they do? They block access to the Star-T site. It’s the online equivalent of shutting one’s eyes tight, sticking fingers in one’s ears, and going “Lalalalala. I can’t hear you. Lalalalala.” It totally works.

Rock ‘n’ Roll CEOs

We know that Blockbuster is revamping stores to become cool hangouts, but it looks like CEO Jim Keyes is really trying to be popular with the kids: He’s throwing down a Guitar Hero challenge. Keyes and Mayor Leppert are calling for local CEOs and notables to pony up $5,000 for six-minute spots in the 24-hour marathon Dallas CEO/Celebrity Guitar Hero Challenge—the event benefits Education is Freedom and starts at 3 p.m. May 16 at the Blockbuster on the corner of Lemmon and McKinney in Uptown. Regular folks can enter for $5 and compete for prizes; the CEO/celeb who raises the most cash wins the contest.

Bankston Chevy Picks Up Stakes, Relocates

Now you see it, now you don’t. Last week Bankston Chevrolet was occupying the northwest corner of Northwest Highway and Abrams Road in Dallas, as it has for years; this week that corner’s empty and Bankston’s moved to larger digs at 4747 LBJ Freeway, next to its Nissan location. A spokeswoman says Bankston is leasing the Northwest/Abrams property through 2011, and has yet to decide whether to sublease it or put another dealership there.

A.H. Belo Tries To Put A Good Face On It

Looking at the bright side, it reports that its first-quarter loss was less than last year’s first-quarter loss, $8.7 million vs. $9.4 million. On the other hand, revenue fell 9%. Ad sales fell 12%. I can sympathize. Market jitters hit D Magazine, too: our ad revenue is down about 5% for the same period.

As for the News’ circulation loss of 11% reported by Eric below, I believe it is necessary. The News has traditionally overdelivered because department stores wanted maximum market coverage. But this is a different day: smaller, more targeted circulation that pays full freight is the new rule for newspapers that hope to survive.

Blockbuster Branches Out

Big news at BBI’s Dallas-area stores as the company tries out some different strategies and inventories, like having a soda jerk fountain and selling HDTVs. I bet some of you saw that in the business section and thought, “Adam is sooo going to link to that.” (Sigh.) I’m so predictable.

Oprah’s Man Gets Everybody Motivated

Stedman Graham, the writer and motivational speaker who may be better known for his “spiritual union” with media mogul Oprah Winfrey, got folks all fired up today at the 2008 Family Gateway Luncheon at the Hilton Anatole. The emcee was Belo8 chief meteorologist Pete Delkus, and attendees included the likes of the Dallas Cowboys’ Gene Jones and Laurie (Mrs. Wade) Phillips, who must have drawn the short straw and wound up sitting next to me. Jump to see how many ways I embarrassed myself with her.

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EDS Byron Nelson To Remain “EDS Byron Nelson”

Earlier this week EDS CEO Ron Rittenmeyer voiced his disgruntlement about the low-wattage of PGA stars who play in the EDS Byron Nelson these days. He said the tourney needed a turnaround for him to feel confident about EDS’ continued sponsorship. I guess Tour commissioner Tim Finchem did some convincing: EDS extended its contract through 2014.

Open Letter to the Convention Center

Dear Convention Center:

You are so awesome — though you’d be totally awesomer if you had a hotel attached to you. While you’re working on that, can I ask you something about your website? Why does it have so many mistakes on it? I’ve sent along the blurb about you that pops up prominently on your homepage. I’ve noted the corrections in red.

“Welcome to the Center of the Universe. The Dallas Convention Center has over more than 1,000,000 square feet. And it offers a staggering 726,726 square feet of prime, contiguous exhibit space, along with a 203,000-square-foot column-free exhibit hall, the largest in the U.S. Plus, the Dallas Convention Center offers even more great features, like such as a 9,816-seat arena, a theater with a 1,750-person capacity and 96 meeting rooms.”

You’re welcome, Convention Center. I love you.

About This Convention Business Business…

All this convention hotel talk is giving me serious déjà vu. I can’t help but remember a feature I wrote for the print product way back in 2003. (It’s easier to remember, since it was the last feature of considerable length that I had the stamina to write.) The story “Topless Bars and Bottom Lines” (catchy title, that) was about the confluence of bad tidings that hampered our Convention and Visitor Business. Notable among them was the debate over a convention hotel. Five years ago, the same arguments were made, albeit by different people. The relevant passage is after the jump.
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Re: Even Skeptics Think the Convention Center Hotel is a Done Deal

“Could be vacant 290 days of the year”? You’re overreaching, Trey. The place would never be vacant. If you’re assuming it’ll be fully booked 75 days out of the year, the question becomes how full will it be the rest of the year?

I find it interesting that Crow is the only businessperson who doesn’t favor the hotel. And he has an obvious interest in killing the deal — or he thinks he has an interest. At our dog-and-pony show, Phillip Jones et al. said that all the other hotels in town, even the ones downtown, support the convention center hotel. They believe a rising tide will lift all ships.

The Other Side Of The Convention-Center Hotel Issue

Gromer Jeffers’ column in the DMN today about the big push for a taxpayer-funded convention-center hotel neglects to mention the quiet, behind-the-scenes campaign that Crow Holdings CEO Harlan Crow is waging against the plan. Luckily, you can find out all about what Crow and other skeptics think in the May issue of D CEO. Also in that new issue: Top execs like Stan Richards, Roger Staubach and Kip Tindell tell how they’re positioning their companies to survive–and thrive–in the economic downturn. Get smart and check it out.

From ‘It Sucks’ To Worse: Experts Describe The Economy

Anybody who attended Saturday’s Dallas Business Hall of Fame gala hoping to hear some encouraging words about the economy pretty much had their world crushed. Jump to find out why. (more…)

Blockbuster’s New Signs of Life

The movie rental dinosaur just might pull off that whole “reinvention/rebirth” thing after all. Blockbuster made an unsolicited bid for Circuit City. This, on top of the recent news of set-top boxes for direct movie downloads. Nice.

Dallas Puts Its Citizens’ Lives at Risk for Red Light Ticket Revenue

An alert FBvian points us to news that Dallas has been shortening yellow lights at intersections monitored by cameras.

There is really nothing else to say: this must stop.

Update: Another FBvian reminds me that we’ve known this for a while.

Troy Aikman, Al Biernat And A Bunch Of Crazy Eights

As Associate Publisher Chris Kent Phelps and I were cooking up big plans for our business magazine, D CEO, over lunch today at Al Biernat’s restaurant, the great Al stopped by, ready as usual with an upbeat, offbeat tidbit. The latest: that former Dallas Cowboys QB Troy Aikman had picked Biernat’s to celebrate his eighth wedding anniversary earlier this week — and that everything about the bash involved an eight. Eight was Troy’s playing number; he was married to his wife, Rhonda, on the eighth of the month; and the couple sat Tuesday night in Al’s booth No. 8. Superstitious athletes, and all that.

Robert Decherd: $10 Million Man

The proxy statement for the new Belo Corp. is out (that’s the broadcasting company; A. H. Belo is the newspaper company). Below the jump is the executive compensation schedule. There’s no doubt the company split was good for one person. Actually, comparing 2006 to 2007, it was good for five people. (Remember, this is only one proxy statement. There’s another one, with another compensation schedule, to come.) And, of course, I need to note that Belo’s stock has fallen 30 percent since it went to market on February 1.

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Maybe Secretary Gutierrez Should Have Sent A Telegram

The latest victim of American Airlines’ cancellation fiasco: U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who had to scratch an appearance today at a Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “We couldn’t control tornadoes, storms, or American Airlines,” said chamber honcho Cici Rojas, explaining why Gutierrez was stuck back in D.C. The secretary was to have helped launch the National Hispanic Business Information Clearinghouse, a new online tool supporting the startup and growth of Hispanic businesses. The site’s funded in large part by Colorado-based Western Union, whose CEO Christina A. Gold pinch-hit for Gutierrez during today’s luncheon at the Fairmont.

UPDATE: Business analyst David Johnson reports that Gutierrez’ Hispanic chamber no-show wasn’t really American’s fault. Seems that once all the AA delays started happening, the secretary’s people had booked his Thursday D.C.-Dallas flight on US Airways instead. Then weather problems wound up delaying the US Air flight, and Gutierrez was stuck at the Washington airport.

Blockbuster Doesn’t Want You to Leave Your House

Or, rather, the company is making it so you don’t have to. Remember when BBI bought Movielink last August? Now we know what it plans to do with it. Blockbuster is working on set-top device to stream movies directly to your TV. Kind of like Apple TV, but doubtful as design-y. When? An announcement is expected sometime this month.

Salon Owner Recovering From Great Flood

Good thing owner Jean-Philippe of the Jean-Philippe Salon is so good-humored and patient. Otherwise he might be ready to kill something today, 10 days after a third-floor toilet at The Pavilion shopping center on Lovers Lane overflowed and flooded his first-floor salon there. After closing for a day a week ago Monday, the Belgian-born haircutter is back in business–sort of. Much of his ceiling’s ripped out, rendering a third of the shop unusable, and gargantuan fans continue to roar all night, trying to dry the place out. Meantime the Pavilion management is promising all will be fixed soon, and Jean-Philippe hasn’t lost his humor. “I was baptized–and flushed,” he says with a grin. “But luckily they didn’t s*** on us.”

TXU Hasn’t Quite Gotten The Hang Of E-Commerce

I pay most of my bills online. I receive many of my monthly bills online. One of those comes from TXU. But every month I still receive a paper invoice from TXU, which, paradoxically, reads “E-Bill Statement.” But it’s not an e-bill, it’s on paper. It’s as if TXU can’t quite believe that those digitally bits it sends over the Internets actually reaches real people with real bank accounts. So it wastes a lot of money sending out paper statements just to make sure. Cute. Except that I wonder just how much that adds to my electric bill.

Local Company Provides Excuse To Link To Sweet Trailer

It is my understanding that 7-Eleven customers and fans can get their hands around Iron Man this month in advance of Paramount Pictures’ new movie release in theaters May 2. In addition, I have been told that, to support this motion picture promotion, 7-Eleven® stores in the U.S. are offering cool, 3-D 22-oz collectible Slurpee® cups and special straws with detachable miniature figures of Iron Man and his nemesis Iron Monger. You may be interested to know that The Iron Monger cup includes 24 actual frames from the Iron Man movie to create action-packed graphics—something never done before. As well, Amp Energy Freeze is the new Slurpee flavor highlighting the much anticipated film, courtesy Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. Participating 7-Eleven stores also feature this month a life-size, 6-foot-4 standee of Iron Man. And, I may have taken all that from a press e-mail just so I could link to this new Iron Man trailer, because, let’s face it, if you aren’t pumped to see this movie, you don’t have a set.

MetroPCS Edges Up After Great First Quarter

Dallas-based MetroPCS Communications — which provides flat-rate wireless calling services — is apparently beating trends, having signed up nearly 450,000 net new wireless subscribers in the first quarter while lowering its churn rate to 4 percent. But they can’t expect to keep up that rate, Forbes notes. Still, good on ‘em for now.

Horse Players Gear Up, Horse Company Bears Down

As longtime readers of FrontBurner might imagine, I’m pretty stoked that Lone Star Park starts its 2008 season of live racing in less than a week. Thursday night, to be exact. Magna Entertainment Corp., owner and operator of LSP and some of the country’s best tracks (Santa Anita, Pimplico Pimlico, Gulfstream, and more), is probably excited too. More like “hopeful.” MECA has fallen on some hard times of late. The NASDAQ stock is on the brink of being delisted, and confident company owner Frank Stronach’s plan to loan MECA money from another one of his interests faces an uphill battle. Full disclosure: I own a tiny bit of MECA stock, purchased as a means of self-rationalizing when I had a bad night at the track. How tiny? Right now, it’s worth a little more than enough to buy a $2 exacta box of three horses.

Oh. And also on the LSP tip: a belated congratulations to former Lone Star Park media relations rock star Darren Rogers. The immensely helpful and kind Rogers is now the Senior Director of Communications & Media Services at Churchill Downs.

Whole Foods Readies To Get A Whole Lot Bigger

Let’s see, the Whole Foods store in Preston Forest is 52,000 square feet; the new one going up in Lakewood will be in the 40’s. Park Lane city store will be in excess of 80,000. That’s a lot of green groceries. Now comes word that WF is adding a second store in Tarrant County along the new 121 Tollway at the to-be-built Edwards Ranch Road. They’re talking 2010 for start-up construction which is more than this once bright-and-beautiful project at Victory Park can say.

The Guy Who Broke the Alphonso Jackson HUD Story

An alert FrontBurnervian points us to this CJR story about the reporter who had the Alphonso Jackson story first — five months ago.

Exxon Mobil Tries Again to Explain Business 101 to House Members

The same Congress that will jack up prices at the pump if they enact their shamanistic policies 1) to fight the chimera of anthropogenic global warming and 2) repeal tax deductions Congress passed for all manufacturers scolded Big Oil on Capitol Hill over jacked up prices at the pump. Highlights? Oh yeah.

J. Stephen Simon, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s senior vice president, and Robert A. Malone, president of BP America, pointed to figures they said suggest the oil and gas industry’s profits last year were not out of line with companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Oil and gas companies, the executives said, earned an average of 8.3 cents per dollar of sales, compared with 7.8 cents per dollar for the Dow companies — which include Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

Simon said that Exxon Mobil’s effective tax rate in 2007 was 44 percent, compared with 30 percent on average for 80 U.S. companies surveyed by Tax Notes, a print and online news service covering tax issues.

Simon said that over the last five years, Exxon Mobil’s U.S. tax bill has exceeded the company’s U.S. earnings by $19 billion.

Why isn’t Exxon Mobil investing more in “alternative energies?”

… fossil fuels are still going to account for at least two-thirds of the world’s energy consumption in three decades and whatever scientific progress is made, the practical prospects for alternatives remain “very, very small.”

And…

Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive officer of Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell, warned against sinking too much cash on alternatives such as biofuels if they cannot be competitive in the marketplace.

“There is no point to spend billions of dollars on a technology that is too expensive for consumers,” van der Veer said.

(Hat tip.)

Radio Shack: Of Batteries and Zip Codes

Fort Worth-based Radio Shack has long been one of those annoying companies that want your zip code when you buy stuff. But word comes through a departed and missed former D Empire employee that one of their outlets in Jackson, Mississippi, wouldn’t accept cash from a customer without his home address. Kudos to the Radio Shack home office, though. The would-be customer dashed off an email to the corporate headquarters and quickly got a $20 gift certificate and an apology from Radio Shack.

Re: Laura Miller and PR

Another PR-company-owning FrontBurnervian sheds still more light on the issue:

Clearly, Laura presumes in her denial that public relations is simply “publicity” or the pursuit of publicity.

The Public Relations Society of America, probably the first among many public relations associations, defines public relations in a complex manner. But “publicity” in not mentioned. Laura’s work for the coal company probably fits squarely in the middle of this definition.

The 100-year old “father” of public relations, Edward Bernays, said in 1992:

“Seventy years ago, H.L. Mencken wrote in The American Language that public relations’ is a substitute for ‘press agent.’ I got him to accept my definition when he wrote his supplement to that work. In that supplement, he identifies a public relations practitioner as ‘an applied social scientist who gives advice to clients or employers on social
attitudes and the actions to take to win the support of the publics on whom the viability of the client or employer depends.’”

Methinks she protests too much.

Go, Barnett Shale!

A new study shows that money is shooting up out of the ground like crazy. Last year $8.2 billion spilled into the local economy. I’m feeling better already.

JC Penney’s Upscale Strategy A Failure?

Sales are down. So is the stock.

What If You Held A Recession, and Nobody Came?

The unemployment rate in Dallas just dropped again, to 4.3%. The rate for Texas hit a 30-year low at 4.1%. Insert your comment about (a) illegal immigration taking American jobs,  (b) Wall Street panics, or (c) the media below.

Pizza Hut’s Bad Timing

Dallas-based Pizza Hut is expanding its menu items to include family-size pasta dishes and to promote the shift, the company is changing the logo on its Dallas North Tollway HQ to “Pasta Hut.” (Mmm. j/k) The sign change may happen as early as tomorrow, but it says here:

An official announcement of the company’s “name change” is scheduled for Tuesday, April Fool’s Day.

My guess, people will assume (and some might hope) it’s a joke.

Jim Keyes Puts Wage-Earning Faith in Stock-Owning Humanity

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes has turned to shareholders to decide how much he and the company’s CFO Thomas Casey should be paid. I think I’ve said before that it was going to take more than a bunch of cookie bouquets to win back the hearts of BBI shareholders after the damage former CEO John Antioco did. But give Keyes credit for making big, huge positive steps.

Sublime Sub-Prime Blame Game Begins?

Kyle Bass is quoted in the latest Forbes Hot Seat with this zinger.

In the subprime witch hunt, the ratings agencies are the guys in the cone-shaped hat. They’re all guilty of stupidity bordering on criminality.

Want to read more from the $600-million-dollar-man? Glad you asked. Check the new print version of FrontBurner for Craig Hanley’s riveting sit-down with Bass, or click here.

Does Robert Schlegel Think He’s Better Than Me?

Know what I did on Friday? Had beers at the Old Monk, while Robert Schlegel was celebrating the sale of his Pavestone Co. to CRH/Oldcastle for $540 million. Know what I did yesterday? Had beers at the Old Monk, while a press release circulated stating that Schlegel will be awarded a prestigious 2008 Horatio Alger Award and will be inducted as a lifetime member of the association during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in April. So he’s had a pretty good week. I mean, if you’re impressed by that sort of thing. And me? I’ll probably be wallowing in disappointment this evening, over beers at the Old Monk.

Five Hundred Horsepower Comes To Blum

The execs at Aston Martin acknowledge that, what with the slumping economy, showing up at work these days in a $265,000 sports car might not be the savviest PR move, especially if you’re the company CEO. But that didn’t keep a bunch of journalists from all over the country–including the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Dan Jedlicka (left), who’s literally written more newspaper auto reviews than anyone–from turning out in Dallas this weekend to test-drive the beautiful new Aston Martin DBS (a.k.a. the “James Bond car”) all over North and Central Texas. Jump for the details. (more…)

Outrage On South Lamar Street

Was anyone else sickened to read this morning how two 70-year-old, husband-and-wife liquor-store owners have been repeatedly robbed, beaten, and shot by criminals at the couple’s store on South Lamar Street? She’s paralyzed from the waist down now after being shot, but he died. Outrageous. This kind of thing hit home for me personally several years ago, when the sweetest lady in the world–she worked at a dry cleaner I patronized in downtown Albuquerque–was terrorized after being accosted and held at knife-point by a robber. It is truly understandable why people like the guy interviewed famously by Rebecca Aguilar blow these criminals–that’s really too kind a word for them–to kingdom come.

The Rich Just Keep Getting Richer

Someone buy Bob Schlegel a drink tonight. Pavestone Company, founded by Schlegel (father of Kim and Kirby), is being sold to Irish building materials group CRH/Oldcastle for $540 million. As part of the deal, Pavestone’s parent company, Schlegel Consolidated LLC will acquire CRH’s manufactured stone veneer business and combine it with their own stone company, Tejas/Veneerstone LP.

Insert Pun Here About HorseTV

Seems “ride again” and getting “back in the saddle” are taken. Point is, local horse guy and World Cup polo player Bernie Uechtritz has raised a bunch of money to resurrect HorseTV, a channel devoted to horsies. He aims to broadcast from Dallas. As a horse fan myself, I wish him — and it — well.

On a side note, we’re about a month away from Opening Night at Lone Star Park. Giddy-up.

Notes From Maastricht

I just received word that The Magic Flame by Jackson Pollock (pictured left) sold for $8 million while an untitled painting by Willem de Kooning went for $5 million. Both to private collectors. Last notes, news, and observations from TEFAF after the jump. (more…)

Strong Sales At TEFAF Defy Talk Of Market Downturn

That’s the headline coming out of Maastricht, Holland after one week of sales at TEFAF, the largest art and antiquities sale in the world. I’ll dole out specific significant sales throughout the day, but I just received word that the private preview, which was a fabulous people watching fest, set the tone for this year’s fair with a record 9,435 visitors, an increase of 10% on 2007. This invitation only event was not just a social gathering; a number of exhibitors, particularly in antiquities and the modern art section, reported their busiest ever opening. Trading continued at a brisk pace throughout the opening day (Friday, March 7th ) and the first weekend. The visitors figure for the first three days was 25,000 visitors, an increase of around 7 %. TEFAF continues until Sunday. Perhaps the success is due to the flowers—this year, instead of tulips, the halls were lined with spectacular displays of 175,000 anemones. That has to be as valid a qualifier as anything in the art world, right?