Sales were lackluster at Art Basel Miami Beach this year, but the president-elect’s economic-stimulus plan was already in effect for those peddling images of him. David Zwirner sold a Marlene Dumas watercolor titled Barack Obama: The Times Before the Election on the first day of the fair and, on day two, Yan Pei-Ming’s large oil painting Obama, for $300,000. Hasted Hunt scored at a satellite fair with Martin Schoeller’s oversize photographic portrait of the incoming prez for $20,000. Neugerriemschneider gallery sold its Elizabeth Peyton drawing, Barack & Michelle, for $60,000. Deitch Projects almost sold a Kurt Kauper painting, Barack, priced at $65,000, to a European collector who ultimately pulled out when he decided the painting deserved a home in the U.S.

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Erica Orden
• Table of Contents: Dec 22, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!