My daughter was married at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem and everything about that day was magical. Those passing by on foot or driving down King George Street on the bus shouted out “Mazel Tov” as we took family pictures. My son in law’s army friends, with whom he had served in Lebanon for almost nine months, were all there to celebrate, and when the glass was broken we sang about the city of Yerushalayim and I cried.
Our first “genuine” painting was bought that same week in Tel Aviv at the Rosenthal Gallery and we proudly brought it back to Teaneck, gingerly stowing it behind a friend’s seat who was sitting in first class on El Al. The big question became where to hang the picture. I began thinking back to all the houses with artwork that I had shown for some inspiration. To be honest, there were not many homes in which the placement of a painting or picture had made such an impression on me.
I did learn early on in my career that authentic, bona fide art work comes with its fair share of headaches and, in the following scenario, an incredible amount of heartache. The listing was being sold as part of the estate of an older gentleman who had passed away and a valuable art collection was hanging on the walls throughout. My meetings with the family members, the executors of the estate, were mainly about instructions relating to the alarm system and how I could never leave anyone alone in any of the rooms. The piece de resistance was a large Marc Chagall in the living room hanging right over the couch. I was surely dazzled by it and felt proud to have earned the sellers’ trust.
A few days later I went inside the listing to “disarm” the alarm and turn the lights on for a showing. I began going from room to room and when I got to the living room my stomach dropped! Where was the Chagall? There was a big empty nothing on the wall above the couch save a professionally installed chrome picture hook, which I remember so vividly as one was not supposed to see that hook but rather the painting it was holding up.
I frantically went to my car phone and called the executors only to be calmly told that the painting had been picked up by a museum curator the day before. All was OK.
Not a moment later the customers showed up and I quickly threw out my sales pitch of “if this house was good enough for a Chagall it will be good enough for you” and turned my focus to the actual home and not the artwork. I must have had help from above as the customers loved the home, free from the diversion of expensive/famous artwork. I learned from this experience about not having distracting works of art on the wall of a home for sale; not baby pictures or the family trip to Disney World and especially not a Chagall. The customers are there to buy a home, not walk through an art gallery or get acquainted with your family’s simcha history.
It soon became quite clear that you need more than one “serious” picture in your home other than your children’s baby pictures and family portraits.
Nechama Polak is the broker of record and owner of V&N Group LLC located at 1401 Palisade Avenue in Teaneck, New Jersey. Send your thoughts and comments to [email protected] or call 201 826 8809.
