I am spending the week in serene and pricey Switzerland, where pizza costs $20 and cows roam the countryside. I am here to cover the epic Art Basel art fair for the London’s Art Newspaper.

Here is a story from our first day of coverage:

www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Bye-bye-to-bling-out-goes-the-glitter-in-comes-the-classic/17461

Originally From: Antique Digest

by Lita Solis-Cohen

A Sotheby’s truck, sent to the American Folk Art Museum in New York City some weeks ago, picked up promised gifts from the collection of Ralph Esmerian. The renowned dealer in colored gemstones had over the years become the principal donor of works to the museum.

In 2001, at the time of the completion of the museum’s new building at 45 West 53rd Street, Esmerian made public his intention to make the museum the steward of the 341 masterworks. They were published in an illustrated catalog, American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum. Installed at the opening of the new building, which was designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the collection received rave reviews.

Esmerian was known for buying the best available on the market, often on credit. All went well in prosperous times, but since 2005, after Esmerian purchased Fred Leighton, a luxury jewelry store, with hundreds of millions of dollars of loans from Merrill Lynch, he has been plagued with financial woes.

Sotheby’s had offered Esmerian’s Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks, once a promised gift to…