Barney A. Ebsworth

Barney A. Ebsworth (July 14, 1934 – April 9, 2018)[1] was an American corporate executive and art collector. He was one of the initial investors in the Build-A-Bear Workshop and was a pioneer in the travel industry.[1] Ebsworth died on April 9, 2018.[2]

Art collection

Ebsworth was a trustee of the St. Louis Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum, a commissioner of the American Art Museum and Smithsonian Institution and a member of the Trustees Council and Co-Chairman of Collectors Committee of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.[3]

At a Christie's auction in 1997, Ebsworth purchased Wayne Thiebaud's Bakery Counter (1962), one of the artist's largest early still lifes, for $1.7 million; at the time, this was a record for the artist.[4] In 2010, he sold Andy Warhol's Big Campbell's Soup Can With Can Opener (Vegetable), a 1962 painting with a can opener cutting into the signature can, for $23.8 million to raise money to finance a church designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando.[5] He also owned the Edward Hopper painting Chop Suey (1929) and had promised it to the Seattle Art Museum.[6] However, at his death, ownership transferred to his estate. In November 2018, the painting sold for a record $92 million.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b "Bernard Ebsworth Obituary". flintofts.com. April 9, 2018. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  2. ^ Bernard (Barney) Ebsworth
  3. ^ "Archives Directory for the History of Collecting". research.frick.org. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  4. ^ Carol Vogel (May 8, 1997), Pop Art Rules at Week's Second Auction The New York Times.
  5. ^ Carol Vogel (November 10, 2010), Lichtenstein Tops Warhol in Auction at Christie's The New York Times.
  6. ^ Frost, Natasha (November 14, 2018). "The Controversy Behind the $92 Million Sale of an Edward Hopper Painting". qz.com. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  7. ^ "Hopper's Chop Suey in record-breaking $92m sale". BBC News. November 14, 2018. Retrieved November 14, 2018.


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