OBSERVER: Refco correctly times the art market

, Financial Times
Published: Jan 27, 2006

Another fine corporate art collection heads to auction.

Refco, the futures and commodities trader that ran into a bit of trouble last year, is auctioning off an edgy collection of photographs, including "Bricks", a 1976 work by Andy Warhol.

Refco, you will remember, filed for bankruptcy protection last October after Phillip Bennett, the chief executive, was accused of forgettingto mention the small matter of $430m in company debt. This was only a few months after Refco had enjoyed a successful public flotation.

The Refco art, to be auctioned this spring at Christie's, was acquired during more than 30 years by Frances Dittmer, the wife of former chairman Thomas Dittmer.

The collection of 500 photographs - plus some paintings and sculptures - was removed from Refco's offices in Chicago and New York and placedin storage.

Mrs Dittmer and curator Adam Brooks seemed to have an eye for work by gritty, downtown New York artists of the 1960s and 1970s whose photographs are quite fashionable right now. Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman, two pioneering photographers, have had been featured in recent high-profileexhibits in Manhattan.

This may mean that the timing of the art auctions - unlike the timing of the discovery of the hidden debt - is fortuitous for the bankrupt company.