“When the empires fall — Roman, Greek — all that is left is the art.”

The Mugrabi family, from left: Alberto, David and the patriach, Jose. Image: nytimes.com

As private dealers, the Mugrabi (family) do not own a gallery or represent artists. They buy or sell works in about 100 art auctions annually, nearly one every three days (sometimes, with smaller auctions, they bid via phone). And the rest of the time, they buy and sell through galleries and fellow dealers.

“We’re market makers,” Alberto said. “You can’t have an impact buying one or two pictures per artist. We’re not buying art like Ron Lauder — just to put it on a wall. We want inventory.” He equated inventory with liquidity: “It gives you staying power.” In the commodities sector, the analogue would be making a run on a precious metal — in order to manipulate the price.

The Mugrabis insist they will be able to continue doing what they do, regardless of how the ground may have shifted beneath their feet. “We’ll become more like collectors and less like dealers now,” David said. “More buying, less selling. It’s like Warren Buffett said — a down market is when you find the bargains. Not that much that is special has come up yet, but when it does, we’ll be there.”

Read the full, fascinating article from the New York Times, HERE