TAKE NO PRISONERS
Brit Currency was not a happy camper when Warhol gave him the bad news. Having been in the art business for 30 years, he had seen it all. Artists jumping ship, fucking the dealers who had carefully built their careers. Employees had left before and ultimately competed against him. However in the past he had always been able to continue to work with those individuals and they were never a real threat. Bernard Phillips was different. He was handsome, a great salesman, and understood the business of art. He had managed to partially steal Brit’s most lucrative and well-known artist, and worse, had offered Warhol very disturbing terms—all in less than a year on the art scene.
Brit knew he couldn’t or wouldn’t compete with Bernard’s generous compensation for Warhol’s work. Brit needed to get Warhol’s paintings on consignment. He didn’t want to tie up precious capital on a living artist’s work, even an exceptional artist like Warhol. After all, Warhol was still alive and could make more and besides it would set a dangerous precedent. Brit Currency needed the money for the dead guys. Obtaining deceased paintings required one to purchase them, rarely securing them on consignment. Deceased artists had the best margins and were the easiest to sell.
The fact that Bernard Phillips had managed to secure a great location and apparently plenty of capital—all while secretly screwing Brit’s personal assistant and stealing who knows what—plus that he knew about Brit’s affair, was all extremely unnerving. Brit realized Bernard was not a person to underestimate. Bernard might destroy Brit’s marriage if he wasn’t careful. It was obvious Bernard would not hesitate to use his ace in the hole if he were pushed too hard.
Brit decided he had to be smarter than Bernard. He would never let Bernard know how much he hated and feared him. Brit also had to make sure Bernard didn’t steal any of his other artists. Brit personally talked to each of his gallery artists and explained he would take it very seriously if any defections to The Cutting Edge occurred, a personal insult. All the artists knew Andy was double dipping, but he was Andy and they were not. Brit Currency would ax and destroy any other artist’s career that tried to do the same.
Brit cut off all the other artists from Bernard. He then sent spies over to The Cutting Edge to see what Warhols he had been able to get out of Andy. Brit planned to discount those pieces that were similar to Bernard’s by 20 percent. If The Cutting Edge wanted to sell Warhols, then they would do it for nothing. It was war, and Bernard Phillips had fired the first shot.