Room to Grow
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For counsel on the gallery project Rakoncay has turned to Marta Pappert, who ran a similar operation at the Art Institute during the 70s and 80s. The Art Rental and Sales Gallery, operated by the women’s board of the museum between 1954 and 1987, could accommodate about 500 pieces. “Nearly every artist of note in Chicago during that time had his or her work for sale at the gallery,” says Pappert. It was “an easy way for beginning collectors to start and very user-friendly.” The gallery not only offered its customers a broad range of local work but turned a nice profit as well; according to Pappert it usually netted between $40,000 and $50,000 a year for the women’s board. The Art Institute closed the gallery to use the space for other purposes.
Everything in the store would be for sale, but customers would also have the option of renting a work and applying the rental fees toward the purchase price. Pappert doesn’t think the project poses much of a threat to the gallery districts; collectors who like an artist from the CAC gallery are liable to look for more of his work elsewhere.
Last year the Golden Ox closed its doors after more than 80 years at North and Clybourn, and now Chicago has lost another temple of authentic German cuisine. Al Wirth, owner of Zum Deutschen Eck at Southport and Wolfram, was celebrating his birthday at the restaurant on Sunday, January 9, when he announced to his unsuspecting staff and more than 100 guests that it was the last day of business. Wirth, whose father opened the restaurant in 1956, faced increasingly stiff competition for the neighborhood’s dining dollars. Sources familiar with the establishment say that during the 1960s and ’70s Wirth’s parents bought a great deal of residential real estate near Zum Deutschen Eck. Wirth has reportedly closed a multimillion-dollar sale of ten plots to Gibbons Management and Builders, which plans to erect condos and town homes.
