(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

In another sign of these changed times, when the Museum of Modern Art threw a dinner on October 6 for its new top curator, Ann Temkin, one prominent patron was notably absent: Kathy Fuld, a MoMA vice-chairman and the wife of erstwhile Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld. She often shares the head table at such functions with MoMA director Glenn Lowry, but that afternoon her husband was in D.C. testifying before Congress. The couple, longtime donors to the museum, will sell some of their collection—including drawings by de Kooning and Agnes Martin—at a November auction at Christie’s (estimated value: $15 million to $20 million). The deal was made before the Lehman bankruptcy, but some in the art world took it as further evidence that the age of Wall Street patronage may be over. “We don’t comment on the whereabouts of our trustees,” said MoMA.

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Alexandra Peers
• Table of Contents: Oct 20, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!