So, in my continuing series on potential purchases in a post-lottery win state of mind, I’m adding some additional art to my unbuilt home(s). This one could be a bit early, seeing as how the lottery drawing and the auction are on the same night, however buying millions of dollars worth of art before you have the money pretty much as “the secret” as it gets.

Tomorrow night’s Impressionist/Modern evening sale at Christie’s in New York has quite the piece, an Alberto Giacometti sculpture, Le Main from 1947. It measures 28 inches long and would be a great addition to the Paris apartment, for an estimate of $10m – 15m. Jean-Paul Sartre gave some words for the introduction to Giacometti’s exhibition catalogue in which this piece was displayed back in 1948, style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #FFFACD">“I can consider separately from the tree itself this wavering branch,” wrote Jean-Paul Sartre, “but I cannot think of an arm rising, a fist closing, apart from a human agent. A man raises his arm, a man clenches his fist; man is the indissoluble unity and the absolute source of his movements.”

Jean-Paul Satre

There’s a lot of great information in the lot for the auction. It continues on with the work’s provenance and notes about the piece and the period of Giacometti’s life that the work was created in.

A bronze cast of La Main was included in this show. The hand is our prime intermediary between the mind and the world, it allows thought to act upon and transform the world. The outstretched hand expresses the human need to grasp, to reach out towards the world and to aspire within it; the hand enables us to realize our potential in accomplishing all things. In the face of another, the hand may embrace in love or ward off in fear, extend itself in joy or lamentation. No part of the human body, except for the head itself, is a more potent symbol for the totality of the human endeavor. Giacometti’s La Main, as fragile as it may appear, carries the emotional and symbolic weight of all these gestures.

The accelerating evolution in Giacometti’s work during the years 1945-1947 stemmed from a sequence of hallucinatory revelations that the sculptor experienced as he reintegrated himself within the cosmopolitan life of Paris, as the city emerged from the deep nightmarish sleep of the Occupation and, amid continuing privations, slowly returned to life during the years following the Liberation. These epiphanies reveal the ways in which the inner life of the artist’s mind contended with the reality of the outer world and the circumstances of his existence. They trace a continuation of the pre-war surrealist impulse in the sculptor’s life and work.

Alberto Giacometti with Le Main among others.

It could be a little bit much for my budget but I’m thinking about dipping into some contemporary auctions, and bidding on some without the million+ price tag. But this work would truly be a pleasure to wake up to everyday.

This particular auction has one other piece by Giacometti, Torse de femme, conceived in 1932. The lot notes for this piece have Peggy Guggenheim all throughout.

In 1960, Peggy Guggenheim, at the incentive of the dealer Alexandre Iolas, decided to continue the edition of Walking Woman II and commissioned Bianchi to make five more casts.5 Giacometti authorized these casts, even though Paolo Barozzi in his memoirs claimed that Giacometti had not been consulted and was irate.6 The casts are invoiced in April 1960. In May 1961, a seventh bronze cast (numbered 0) was made for Alberto Giacometti to give to a friend. An eighth cast was made in July 1969 at the foundry which had been bought in the meantime by Stefan-Costi in Trevisa. This cast, done without the authorization of Annette Giacometti from the original plaster, was later accepted by her among the legal edition as a tribute to the old friendship between her husband and Peggy Guggenheim.

Peggy Guggenheim with Piazza by Giacometti and Picasso’s On the Beach (La Baignade).

So I didn’t win the $244 million lottery last night. But, the good news is, nobody else did either! So it’s now up to $266 million dollars for Tuesday night’s drawing. I’ve decided to take the idea of “The Secret” to a whole new level with, Things I could, maybe would, buy if I won the lottery. Firstly, after some calculations I’ve discovered that the total take home post-tax, post-lump sum option for a prize of $266 would be somewhere around $115m. Here’s some ideas about where all that cheeze could go, post-charity of course.

Before I bought a house I would have to buy art, to know how big the house needs to be. I’d sit front row at Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Sale on May 12th in New York, eagerly awaiting Lot number 15.

WILLEM DE KOONING (1904 – 1997)
Sagamore

signed

oil, enamel and charcoal on paper mounted on board
22 1/2 x 28 in. 57.2 x 71.1 cm.
Executed in 1955.

ESTIMATE 3,500,000 – 4,500,000 USD

Maybe a Donald Judd for the entry area. There’ll be a sweeping skylight above it, casting a natural glow. This one would have to be go inside the Paris apartment, of course.

DONALD JUDD (1928-1994)
Untitled, 1992 (92-7 HERNANDEZ)

Cor-ten steel and black Plexiglas in six units
each: 20 x 40 x 20 in. 50.8 x 101.6 x 50.8 cm. Overall: 240 x 40 x 20 in. 609.6 x 101.6 x 50.8 cm.
Executed in 1992, this work is stamped 92-7 Judd by Hernandez on the reverse of each unit.

ESTIMATE 2,000,000 – 3,000,000 USD

For the Los Angeles estate, I’d definitely be interested in purchasing lot no. 313 from the day sale.

FLORIAN MAIER-AICHEN B. 1973

Untitled (FREEWAY CRASH)
signed and dated 2002 on a label affixed to the backing board

Cibachrome print
44 by 57 in. 111.8 by 144.8 cm.
Executed in 2002, this work is number 5 from an edition of 6 plus 2 artist’s proofs.

ESTIMATE 35,000 – 45,000 USD

This afternoon I bought my $5 lottery ticket for Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing. My four hand-scribbled and one quick-pick option ticket was handed to the cashier at the corner gas station. I was given my print out and as always a “good luck” from the cashier followed. I’ve been playing twice a week now for the past few weeks, watching the unclaimed jackpot slowly rise after each drawing from around $100m to now $224m. I have only won $7 since my first $5 bet back when I was hoping to win a cash buyout of $70m. With Friday night’s buyout option, this dream win would be $138m. That amount of money is enough to inspire people. If not for the very idea of winning, much less possessing $138m, people wouldn’t play. I think in some ways we imagine that we’re going to be that guy one day. The one driving the Lamborghini, living in that mansion by the sea. But in reality it’s truly unimaginable, no matter how hard we try and wrap our minds around it. What happens to those who achieve the unimaginable. An award as grand as the lottery, the highest on record being $390m. An amount so large, from an amount so little, $1. Not even an investment. A value less than a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread multiplying $390m times. What happens to the man who goes from having nothing to suddenly having it all? In once instance, it was a man who already had it all and was given more and then lost everything.

The Big Game stared in 1996 with just six participating states and has since expanded to 38 states with 3 more being added next month and has gone under name changes to ultimately end up as Mega Millions. Having some of the world’s largest wins on record, yet the lottery also gives huge amounts back to its state holding participants with 35% of ticket sales going to government services, like education. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the lottery has expanded to so many states, so quickly. As a depression ensues, people play the lottery more than ever, adding to the cycle of give and take and in hopes of having that life like no other, imagined by millions of people twice a week around 11pm eastern standard time.

Their website advertises all the great things you could do with the money. “Save for retirement,” “buy your dream house,” “go back to school,” but what about the real-life headlines from some of the big game’s winners. “$20 million winner, kidnapped and murdered by own sister-in-law,” “16-year marriage disintegrated,” and the multiple headlines for one of the most infamous winners, Jack Whittaker.

In 2002 he won $314,900,000.00 dollars, the biggest lottery winner of all time up until 2007. The already self-made millionaire won the Powerball game on Christmas day and took home a lump sum of $113m after taxes. In just a short amount of time Jack has gone through a list of devastation. His granddaughter died by drug overdose, he’s been sued for bouncing checks at casinos, multiple burglaries and arrests for drunk driving. $500k was stolen from his car parked outside of a stripclub and he has been sued by the Father of an 18 year old boy whose body was found dead inside his home. To whom much is given, much is expected I guess.

Here’s to Friday night’s big win!

Above, $315m Lottery winner, Jack Whittaker