Good Times: Bill Perkins Explains Why He Bought Ernie Barnes's The Sugar Shack for $15 million

Artelligence Podcast

The May week of sales began with Andy Warhol's $195 million Shot Sage Blue Marilyn. That was the work everybody expected to be the most talked about lot of the week. But on the third night of sales, something extraordinary and authentic happened. A work by former professional football player and artist Ernie Barnes was offered for sale. Positioned at the auction house in a highly trafficked place, it had begun to stir interest. When the bidding began, that interest erupted into a war between an art advisor sitting in the audience bidding for a client and Houston trader Bill Perkins. In the end, Perkins paid $15 million for the lot originally estimated around $100,000. That was a lot more than he had originally intended to pay but much less than was he was determined to spend to get his prize. Bill Perkins joins us to talk about the experience.