The collection of a prominent Florida art couple took a big hit last month, literally.
A 66-year-old driver crashed her Rolls-Royce onto the property of hedge fund tycoon Steven Tananbaum and his wife, Lisa Tanabaum. She damaged a $3 million Damien Hirt sculpture in their garden before plowing through a decorative fence and a five-foot high dike, plunging into the sand below.
The accident took place on Canterbury Lane just after 6pm on March 31. Palm Beach Fire Department attended the scene to transport the driver to St. Mary’s Medical Center. The Palm Beach resident did not appear to be intoxicated, but had no recollection of the events leading up to the accident, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.
The initial report said the owner was reporting damage to a “coral art sculpture” worth $3 million.
Damien Hirt, Sphinx. Photo courtesy of Prudence Cuming Associates ©Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS/SIAE 2017.
A quick check of online property records confirms the beachfront home on Canterbury Lane is owned by the Tananbaums. The couple bought the residence for $26.4 million in 2011, according to Florida Parcel, a real estate website that aggregates information from public records. The home is now valued at $50.8 million.
The detail of the sculpture made of coral was a significant clue that the piece was by Hirst, who staged a successful exhibition“Treasures from the Wreck of the Incredible», during the 2017 Venice Biennale.
Each work in the exhibition was decorated to give the impression that it had been salvaged from a 2,000 year old shipwreck, still encrusted with barnacles and other aquatic life. The artist even created a mockumentary on the alleged recovery of works from the aquatic depths.
The Rolls Royce that hit Damien Hirst’s Sphinx, reportedly valued at $3 million, in Palm Beach, home of art collectors Steven and Lisa Tananbaum. Photo courtesy of Palm Beach Police.
Palm Beach Police photographs appear to show Hirst’s sculpture Sphinx than the work concerned. Luckily, although the Rolls Royce ended up on the beach, the piece only appears to have been knocked off its pedestal, not pushed into the ocean. There is no word on the extent of damage to the artwork, but Fox58a local news outlet in Bakersfield, Calif., reports the seawall will cost $10,000 to repair.
The Tananbaums are known to be contentious about their art collection, which reportedly includes works by Brice Marden, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Willem de Kooning, Jenny Saville, Takashi Murakami, Andreas Gursky and Gerhard Richter. (Steven is a curator At modern Art Museum At New York.)
In 2018, Steven sued Larry Gagosian on three monumental sculptures by Jeff Koons that he claimed to have paid for three years earlier but had never received. A judge has agreed to hear the lawsuit the following year, but the parties have agreed in February 2020.
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