🔥 MoMA's New Boss + Lee Ufan

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HEY Y’ALL!

Thanks for all the great feedback on the Sola Olulode piece I shared last day!

🔥 ICYMI – Catchs from the Last Week:

1. Tom Wesselmann, Sunset Nude #1, 2002 - priced at £650,000

2. Sola Olulode, Everyday Gets Hotter Than The One Before, 2021 - priced at £10,000

3. Cece Philips, Cheek to Cheek, 2022 - priced at at £12,500

Today we have Lee Ufan delivering stealthy value from the overlooked ’90s, while MoMA quietly nudges the market toward curator-approved, cautious optimism.

But first…

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Here’s what a collector shared with me this week:

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-Today’s Catch-

Lee Ufan

💭 My 2 Cents: If you're tired of buying the same tired print from the same hyped-up “blue-chip” artists, this Lee Ufan In Milano 3 might be the kind of quiet power play that actually ages well. Not loud, not trendy, just Lee doing what he does best: giving you almost nothing and somehow making it feel like everything. It’s not a painting, but the scale and technique are doing the heavy lifting. Plus, let’s be honest: a 1992 drypoint litho with real estate-level dimensions doesn’t exactly scream “editioned filler.”

🔑 Key Numbers: Edition of 50, tight enough to avoid the usual oversupply issue. Price: £6,550 (around $8,300). That’s well below the 1990s average of $75K, even if that’s skewed by some mid-tier paintings. Sell-through rate for Lee just hit 85.1%, and the average hammer ratio is 1.54, so bidding energy is still alive. You’re not playing the hype cycle—you’re buying the dip.

🧠 Why It’s a Smart Pick: It’s not a masterpiece, but it is a clever flex. Big, rare-ish, and from the decade most collectors sleep on. A low-risk, high-taste entry point for someone who knows what they’re looking at.

-In a Minute-

🔥 Words I Like: hot seat, artpocalypse, curatorbait

MoMA's New Boss

So, MoMA just crowned Christophe Cherix as its next director, swapping out long-time king Glenn Lowry after an eternity in charge. Good news if you’re into prints, retrospectives, or meticulously resurrected chocolate installations; bad news if you’re nostalgic about the last three decades of MoMA’s predictable moves.

Cherix’s vibe? Expect meticulous, nerd-level detail and an obsession with ambitious retrospectives (remember that Adrian Piper blockbuster?). Basically, MoMA’s gonna double down on heavy-hitter solo shows that scream cultural legitimacy but quietly court market hype.

Speaking of market hype, you’d think collectors would be freaking out or popping champagne. Actually, it’s neither, more like cautious whispers and side-eyes.

New blood at MoMA means uncertainty, and uncertainty makes the auction houses twitchy. Already seeing a subtle uptick in interest for names Cherix previously championed—Ruscha sketches, Yoko Ono ephemera, Broodthaers multiples—so check your dusty portfolios now.

But careful: don’t fall into the trap of curatorbait. Cherix isn’t an outsider; he’s an insider’s insider, deep in MoMA’s bureaucratic belly since ’07, and likely to favor subtle pivots rather than bold revolutions.

Translation: if you’re chasing immediate flips, you might get burned. The smarter bet? Look to artists with well-documented MoMA affinity but lagging market momentum.

This isn’t some idealistic narrative about museums shaking off commercial shackles. Quite the opposite. Cherix’s careful stewardship practically screams institutional stability, not upheaval.

Still, stability in art is a double-edged sword—steady appreciation, yes, but also limited volatility. Which means the quick-buck crowd should pivot now, perhaps towards edgier, younger names on MoMA’s radar who might soon get a Cherix-sanctioned spotlight.

One actionable step? Dig into MoMA’s prints and illustrated books acquisitions from the past five years; Cherix’s fingerprints are all over them, offering clues to future winners.

-Whenever You Are Ready-

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See you soon!

-Alvaro (@theartmarketguy)

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Disclaimer

Not financial advice. Frame&Flame is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions.