A. Alfred Taubman Passes Away At Age 91. Michigan Loses A Truly Great Man.

[canuck]

A couple of points of clarity here: What was charged in the Sotheby's case was the fixing of commissions to be paid from the seller to the auction house. The woman heading up Sotheby's for Mr. Taubman conspired to fix commissions with her equal at Christie's, the main competitor of Sotheby's. This was basically a victim less crime. What do collectors care abut? the value of their collections, and the trend of the value of their assets. They could take that money and do something boring with it, like put it in various investments like stocks and bonds, but instead they appreciate art and put the money in art that they can look at on their walls, impress visitors and loan to institutions for street cred with their peers. Their number one concern? What is my money doing? is it going up? stagnating? going down? the commission fixing didn't affect that process. Oh, it was still illegal, and certainly immoral, but greater crimes led to the housing market crash of 2008, and no one has been locked up over that.
The Riverfront towers? NOT an exclusive place, and not catering to the wealthy. If that concept or dream is how they started out, that's not how they ended. I was in and out of that complex many times from 1992-2003 and to be honest, it's just an apartment complex. It's newer, there is a gate, but it's no Shangra-la. My previous employer had an apartment there, he was one of the investors in the deal, along with Fisher and Taubman and others. We reserved the elevator for a day of moving only to find out that the Sheriff took precedence that day for an eviction. I think it was a good idea at the inception, but the reality never lived up to that ideal.
If Al hand't built all of those shopping centers someone else would have. Business abhors a vacuum.

Yes, when they put togeher deals like that, they usually pull that one out; "It's all good, don't worry, it's basically a victimless crime".

The business of buying and selling Art is the topmost in the money laundering operations of organized crime worldwide, by the way.