In the art market, sometimes the deals that don’t happen are just as memorable as the ones that do. In 1961, the late collector and curator David Whitney passed up a chance to buy an exemplary Jasper Johns drawing from the artist for $750. According to Tobias Meyer, worldwide head of contemporary art for Sotheby’s, Whitney declined because “Jasper wouldn’t give him a discount.” In 2004 the work, 0 Through 9, sold at Sotheby’s New York for $10.9 million—that’s a staggering 1.5 million percent increase in value. While such stories of missed opportunities are far less common than tales of market success or even of buyer’s remorse, some collectors will never forget the ones that got away.

ADAM LINDEMANN
NEW YORK
Emmanuel Perrotin tried to get me to buy Maurizio Cattelan’s 2001 sculpture of himself popping through the floor, and my wife, Amalia Dayan, pressured me to pay the $350,000 the dealer wanted. But I didn’t understand what Cattelan was doing and how important it is to have one of his works in this art market. He was so irreverent, and I found him rude and abusive to collectors. I really misunderstood him. He is a great lover of art, and his work is very sad and mainly about himself and the absurd and comic realities we live in. What really bothered me was when Christie’s New York sold the piece in November 2004 for more than $2 million, which painfully revealed my myopia.

GUY ULLENS
GENEVA
In 1972 I had the chance to buy two very beautiful Rothkos from the Brussels gallery Françoise Mayer for the 2008 equivalent of €50,000 [$77,000] each—a very cheap price. It was deep love at first sight. They were splendid, and their beauty was really a huge surprise to me. But I did not have money at the time, and my wife was worried on the financial side.

BETH RUDIN DEWOODY
NEW YORK AND PALM BEACH
I have four Jeff Koons train cars from his 1986 “Jim Beam” train sculptures and was offered a fourth, Box Car, years ago by Anthony Grant, still a dealer then, for $65,000, which at the time was a lot for me. It was similar to one I already had, but obviously I have always regretted not getting it. I would love to have a more complete set.

FRANK COHEN
MANCHESTER, U.K.
In the late 1980s, the London dealer Leslie Waddington offered me a painting from Roy Lichtenstein’s “Reflections” series from that period, for $85,000. It was a fair-size piece—around seven by four feet. He even told me I could pay him whenever I wanted. But I didn’t have the money in those days, and I didn’t feel I wanted to commit myself, because I was buying other things. Today it would be worth about $8 million.

RALPH BURNET
MINNEAPOLIS
In 1996 the Walker Art Center had a Jeff Koons exhibition. There was an artist’s proof of one piece in the show, his bronze Lifeboat, 1985, that I heard was for sale for under $200,000. But I didn’t reach out quickly enough. Some Chicago collectors purchased it, and it now sits in the Museum of Contemporary Art there. If I had bought it, it would be in the Walker!

"Going, Going, Gone" originally appeared in the August 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's August 2008 Table of Contents.