What made the Silverman collection such a remarkable collection?
From our first meeting in New York it was clear; Benedict Silverman and I had a rapport. We preferred the same artists and we shared a lust for art and life in a remarkable meeting of minds. We were more in sync than we both knew at the time.I met Benedict in 1991, at his then apartment on East 66th Street, the year most markets were stagnant if not contracting - stock, real estate and art, all were moribund - and just after he and his wife Jayne had bought the former William Randolph Hearst apartment on Riverside Drive. Benedict was negotiating for the air rights and selling art to fund the cash shortfall. A mutual friend introduced us to each other, hoping I would assist in the sale of a couple of Benedict’s Egon Schiele watercolours. The first, a quirky and difficult subject of 19u, was sold promptly and very successfully- I think even to Benedict’s surprise. A second followed, a 1917 watercolour of a reclining woman naked-barring her green slippers -with splayed
legs. It was also placed with alacrity in a celebrated Hollywood collection. While both works were of high quality, I understood why Benedict could part with them. They were not the work of an artist that shouted: ‘This is me -this is what I can do.’ And I understood in the brief time we had spent together that Benedict wanted only art that had that special quality.
