Last updated: March 24, 2022
The Forbes Gallery which was located on Fifth Avenue between 12th and 13th St. in Greenwich Village went dark in November 2014. Then Forbes sold the building to NYU. I want to know: what happened to the art in the galleries?
UPDATE MAY 2017: Found them!! Coming up for auction, GREAT article in the NYT here
I enjoyed visiting the galleries to view the Forbes collection of items like the original Monopoly board and the notable Faberge eggs. Most importantly, I loved seeing their collection of Normandie panels.
Normandie Panels in the Forbes Collection
These were prominently displayed in the entryway immediately after walking through security.
Where did they go?
After the closing, I was curious about where the gallery may have relocated to or if the items had been offer up for auction.
Here are a few things I did to exhaust my search:
- Contacted the Forbes Company via phone (received no answer or response)
- Reached out to Forbes Company employees via LinkedIn (no answer or response)
- Emailed an artist friend of a colleague (he had no idea but asked me to inform him once I knew)
- Went to TripAdvisor (Found out it closed in November 2014)
- Found an article stating items were sold in an auction once the gallery closed for good. (lost this article, damn!)
- Here is the last post to their website about the gallery closing
If you have any more information about what happened, please email me. I’m specifically interested to know where the Normandie panels by Jean Dupas went.
More Information
Great blog post by Nick Normal about the Forbes Galleries
This article “60-62 Fifth Avenue, the Forbes Building” says:
Although much of Malcolm Forbes’ collection has been dispersed, the Forbes Galleries have continued as a jewel-box art space under the leadership of Christopher “Kip” Forbes, Malcolm’s son. The Forbes Building itself has been recently sold to NYU with the last gallery shows closing November 14th of this year.
The Wikipedia page says:
The collection stemmed from Forbes’ lifelong collection of toys, most of which have since been auctioned off. Among the museum’s notable exhibits over time included “Olympic Gold”, a collection of medals and other collectibles from some of the world’s most accomplished Olympians, a number of Faberge Eggs, an armada of 500 ships and 12,000 toy soldiers and one of the original Monopoly boards.
New York Times article: FORBES BUYS SALON PANELS OF NORMANDIE FOR $90,000
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Photos of the Forbes Gallery space
I got these from Foursquare and Yelp.
Conclusion
If you have any more information about what happened, please email me. I’m specifically interested to know where the Normandie panels by Jean Dupas went. I’d love to buy them!