Celebrity News

SCULPTURE SALE NOT ALL HEART

ART collector Adam Lindemann might have trouble acquiring new pieces after “flipping” a Jeff Koons sculpture, “Heart,” back to the dealer from whom he’d bought it for a huge profit last week.

Art-world sources say Lindemann and dealer Larry Gagosian had a falling-out three years ago when Lindemann lured away two of Gagosian’s top staffers, Stephania Bartolami and Amalia Dayan (now Mrs. Lindemann), and put them into business in the short-lived Bartolami Dayan art gallery in Chelsea.

“Lindemann was cut off. Gagosian wouldn’t sell to him,” one source told Page Six. Lindemann, whose father is worth $1.9 billion according to Forbes, arrived at his yacht in the Hamptons a couple of years ago to find an uninvited Gagosian onboard waiting for him.

“Larry had ordered a martini and asked my butler to cook him a steak,” Lindemann was recently quoted as saying on ArtNet.com, which reported, “The eyes of these two grandees locked in the steely gaze of a spaghetti western.”

The two apparently reached a détente. Our source said, “Amalia went to Gagosian last year and sweet-talked him, saying, ‘We’re so much in love. This sculpture [“Heart”] is a symbol of our love.’ Gagosian relented and sold it to Lindemann for $4 million.”

Amalia is seven months pregnant. But Lindemann’s purchase of the 3,500-pound, stainless-steel heart might have involved more than romance. “Their whole game [was to sell it for a giant profit],” our source said. “They never took it out of the crate. They sent it straight to Sotheby’s.”

At last week’s auction, Gagosian, who’d been sucking on a red lollipop, seemed to grimace when he made the high bid of $23 million. Art experts said he had to buy the work at the price Sotheby’s set to maintain Koons’ status atop the art world and keep the price up for his future sales.

“There’s an unwritten law against flipping,” said one insider. “No one will ever sell to Adam again.”

Gagosian declined comment. Lindemann said, “None of your information is correct.”