THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPIC
Artworks by Betye Saar and Norman Rockwell highlighted the opening of the new Tang Wing for American Democracy at the New York Historical museum in June. But now, less than two months later, those pieces are gone from view. Or are they?
Shortly after the opening, the museum replaced 17 objects in “Democracy Matters,” a show inaugurating the $175 million architectural addition, with replicas. Officials quietly made the swaps after determining that the originals were subject to light damage from the windows of the new wing, designed by the famed architect Robert A.M. Stern, who died late last year. But it didn’t take long for visitors to catch, then condemn, the decision.
It was a misguided move by the New York Historical, but the episode also raised a more complicated question about the role of authenticity in museums, especially those dedicated to history. Does an artwork need to be “real” to have its full intended effect?
The New York Historical’s handling of Saar’s mixed-media assemblage, Extreme Times Call for Extreme Heroines (2017), is an illuminating test case. Featuring what an adjacent wall text describes as a “‘mammy’ caricature” strapped to a washboard, rifle in hand, the artwork is clear in its message: the Jim Crow era may be gone, but its shadow isn’t.
Rather than fabricating a facsimile of Extreme Times Call for Extreme Heroines, the museum replaced the original with a photographic reproduction—a gesture that unintentionally echoed the same systemic erasure Saar’s work calls out. Though it, too, has since been removed, the photo briefly turned the authenticity question in on itself, zapping the artwork of its power and reaffirming it at the same time. In this case, at least, the “realness” of the artwork transcended its objecthood.
Editor’s note: NoReserve is taking next week off. We’ll return to our regular scheduled programming on Tuesday, August 25.
3…THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BETYE SAAR
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This summer, we lost Betye Saar, a famed artist known for her emotionally evocative assemblages of found objects. She died at 99. Saar’s creative dialogue with this kind of work began as a child in Pasadena, where she witnessed the construction of the Watts Towers, Sabato Rodia's seminal work of Art Brut composed of several steel and concrete conical structures and decorated with found objects like seashells, mirrors, and glass bottles. The towers were completed in 1954, when Saar was in her late 20’s and operating an enamel business called Brown and Tann with two fellow artists.
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A pivotal moment came in 1969, when Saar used an old window frame she found on vacation to create Black Girl's Window (1969). The work was created in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and uses abstracted, foreboding imagery in a grid of small window frames that depicts a pair of Black children dancing beneath the sun and the moon, a lion roaring into the day, and scenes of racial violence. Saar became a seminal figure of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, producing explicitly political artworks that married celestial and paranormal symbols with commercial icons like Aunt Jemima.
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The Saar legacy carries on through the art of three generations. The children she had with ceramicist Robert Saar became artists in their own right, and so did their children. One of Betye’s daughters, Allison Saar, was an artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem in the early 1980s and recently celebrated a show at Galerie Lelong in Paris. Allison’s daughter, Maddy Inez Leeser, has made a name for herself as well, creating ceramic sculptures informed by magic, mythology, and the natural world.
A NUMBER TO KNOW
$1,000
The approximate average list price for an IKEA item on the design resale marketplace Chairish, the platform’s vice president of brand and merchandising told the Wall Street Journal. It’s just one data point illustrating the counterintuitive frenzy for vintage furniture and design from the brand beloved for making Scandinavian design… um, affordable.
“The irony is palpable,” writes Leonora Epstein. “In its mission to democratize design, IKEA has inadvertently created a sub-economy of collectible products available only to those with the means to acquire them.” She relays that the hottest items tend to pre-date the brand’s 1985 expansion to the US, or to have come from edgier (and often discontinued) capsule collections. Standout examples include a modernist 1971 Impala chair (original retail price: $354) listed for $12,705 on 1st Dibs, and a set of two metal PS Easychairs from 2012 (original retail price: $339) asking $3,782.
IKEA’s resale surge aligns with another notable upswing in the auction market. Design, decorative art, and furniture made almost $285 million at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips in the first half of 2026, per data from market analytics firm ArtTactic. That was the highest first-half total for the category in the past 12 years—and around $12 million more than buyers at the Big Three auction houses have spent on Old Master artwork this January through June.
Does it sound absurd at first to hear about people (often millennials and zoomers, Epstein reports) paying five figures for chairs made by what has become the definitive brand for dorm room furniture? Probably. But the mania for vintage IKEA pieces is just one component of a phenomenon that extends to the auction sector’s pinnacle—and unlike the brand’s infamous assembly instructions, at least we’re giving you more than a few jaunty illustrations to explain how everything fits together.
—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market
ASK: ACCESS SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE
Jaime from New York ASKed: How do I start buying real art? As someone who is not in the art world and doesn’t understand it, how do I know what’s good, bad, worth it, or a waste?
Josh Baer for NoReserve: That old dad joke, "I got wealthy the old-fashioned way—I inherited it," applies to owning art, but not buying it. What you mean by "real" art is, I think, the hidden question. If you buy something you love, would be happy to own forever, and assume has an effective value (at the time of purchase) of $0, then you can't go wrong. "Good" and "bad" are subjective things at what I assume are lower values.
If you are a tech billionaire starting your first purchase over $10 million, then it's different. Hire an art advisor. Rather than the normal advice of frequenting galleries, I would suggest starting at auction houses because they put the price on everything. Also, someone there is used to talking to newbies.
Remember, you're not a dummy. Try to understand the work as an intelligent person, even if you’re not well-versed in the inner language of art.
Have your own question for the NoReserve team? Reply to this email or reach out to us on Instagram, @no.reserve. Readers whose submissions we choose get a special prize—three free months of our paid newsletter, The Baer Faxt.
2 MINUTES WITH…
Say two similar artworks are displayed for sale, one with a price tag, the other without. Which piece would gather more interest? The answer was one of many revelations to come from the most recent edition of The Baer Faxt Podcast, which featured two true power players of the art world, former Art Basel Global Director Marc Spiegler and Art Intelligence Global founder Amy Cappellazzo, in conversation with our host, Josh Baer. Catch a teaser (and the answer to this paragraph’s opening question) below before the full episode goes live this Thursday, August 13, on all major podcast platforms and at thebaerfaxtpodcast.com. Paid subscribers to The Baer Faxt will also receive a deeper dive into topics discussed in Thursday’s edition of The Baer Faxt newsletter. Head here to request a free sample or view our subscription tiers.
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On Wednesday, September 2, the 16th Annual Baer Faxt Invitational will tee off in Sagaponack, New York, with proceeds benefiting The Church Sag Harbor—the dynamic art center and artists residency program we all know and love. From 6–8 pm, we’ll be celebrating next door at the Old Stove Pub, now in the hands of our friends at the downtown favorite, Jean’s.
Tickets to the BBQ and Hole Sign Sponsorships are available for purchase here. All proceeds benefit The Church Sag Harbor.
About The Church Sag Harbor
The Church was established in 2019 by artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik. Housed in a deconsecrated 19th-century church, its doors opened in April 2021. Our mission is to foster creativity and to honor the living history of Sag Harbor as a maker village. The East End represents an exceptional artistic legacy, from indigenous artists of centuries past to Abstract Expressionists of the mid-20th Century to the many celebrated writers, makers, musicians, and visual artists of the current moment. Core programming includes visual art exhibitions, concerts and events, educational initiatives, workshops, lectures, and an artist's residency.
About Jean’s / The Old Stove Pub
Jean's is a farm-to-table restaurant, lounge, and cultural hub in New York’s NoHo neighborhood. The owners of Jean’s acquired The Old Stove Pub in Sagaponack and are currently in the process of restoring the beloved space and giving it a new life for the next 50 years. Although the official opening is Memorial Day 2027, we are hosting limited gatherings in August and September, and are excited to welcome some select guests to experience its historic charm.
About The Annual Baer Faxt Invitational
Since 2010, Josh Baer and The Baer Faxt have raised over $2,000,000 through The Annual Baer Faxt Invitational. Proceeds have gone to Avenues For Justice, helping at-risk youth via one of the country’s first and most cost-effective Alternative to Incarceration programs, as well as other non-profits like Artistic Noise, an organization working with young people who are incarcerated, on probation, in foster care, unhoused, or otherwise impacted by the juvenile court system.
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