Painter wMS/$7 Million Sale
cowboy
A life's work sold in a single stroke: Wildlife painter Richard Berghammer
says the $7-million sale of his collection couldn't have come at a better
time
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020302002020&query
=sclerosis
Mar 2, 2002
Financial Post - Canada
Richard Berghammer has sold his life away and he seems pretty happy about
it. A Chinese electronics mogul recently paid $7-million for a collection of
Mr. Berghammer's wildlife paintings in a deal that should end a lifetime of
financial hardship for the Elliot Lake, Ont.-based artist. The collection
represents nearly 80% of the work ever completed by the 62-year-old painter.
"He bought the lifetime of one man," Mr. Berghammer says. "That's the gist
of it."
The sale's timing is poignant given that Mr. Berghammer suffers from
multiple sclerosis, and over the past decade the disease has made it
increasingly difficult for him to continue working.
"I'm pretty much guided by this damn disease," he says, "and now it hurts me
to pick up a brush."
Financial security may offer cold comfort given Mr. Berghammer's flagging
health, but the sale also amounts to overdue recognition for the artist and
his unusual work. The artist paints on leather, not canvas, employing
high-spirit dyes in the place of traditional watercolour or oil paints.
Each work begins with Mr. Berghammer carving the leather with a knife. He
then pushes and pulls at the leather to give it a three dimensional effect.
If the carving goes poorly, he scraps the piece before the painting even
begins.
But if he's satisfied, Mr. Berghammer begins the labourious process of
applying dye to the leather, spending an average of 400 to 500 hours on a
single work. Large pieces, like his seven foot long dogsled team, or his
four foot by five foot image of a polar bear, can take up to 1,500 hours.
As far as he knows, he is the only artist in Canada, and perhaps the world,
to use this technique to turn cowhide into fine art.
The time and effort required to complete a single painting has made Mr.
Berghammer unwilling to part with them over the years.
"It's been pretty difficult to make a living without selling," he says, "but
nobody would pay a decent price. If I had wanted a couple of thousand
dollars for one, a lot of people would have been interested. But I wasn't
prepared to just give them away. They represent an awful lot of work."
He had managed to sell a few of his leather works, and he'd supplemented his
income through the sale of less-expensive (and less labourious) canvas
paintings. Still, he says he wouldn't have survived without the support of
his parents. "Whenever I needed money I called my mother," he says, "she was
so faithful."
The artist's family played a pivotal role in the development of his unusual
oeuvre. His father was the local harness maker in Lloydminster, Alta., where
Mr. Berghammer learned the family trade.
"My father taught me how to mark and write on the leather," he says, "He
always wanted me to make rosettes for saddles, which I thought was kind of a
dead end job. So eventually, I gave that up and started painting wildlife
instead."
In 1989, the sale of 55 of his paintings to a European company gave Mr.
Berghammer his first taste of financial success. It also taught him a harsh
lesson about the art business. While press reports at the time valued the
deal at about $5-million, the final payout was far less.
"We had a lot of trouble with that deal," he says. "We thought we would get
$30,000 for each painting, and we ended up with $11,000 a piece. But you
live and learn. I had never done anything like that before."
Still, that sale allowed Mr. Berghammer to buy a house in Elliot Lake and
move from the suburbs of Toronto.
"I came up here for a place to paint," says Mr. Berghammer, noting that
Elliot Lake brings him close to the natural subjects he prefers, "and I've
got a beautiful home. It's just a little place. I've got paintings from the
floor to the ceiling. There are even some on the ceiling now. People come in
here and they can't believe it."
Visitors from the United States, Italy and Great Britain have come to Mr.
Berghammer's art laden home, all drawn by his advertisements in newspapers
and magazines seeking potential buyers for his work. Indeed, it was an
advertisement placed in a Hong Kong daily newspaper -- an ad that also ran
in New York, Washington and Vancouver -- that attracted his most recent
patron.
The identity of the wealthy customer is a secret. "He is a very touchy
person," explains Mr. Berghammer. "He owns an electronic company or
something. He's a little bit afraid of the Chinese government. They are not
happy when that kind of money leaves the country."
The painter says he would have preferred to keep his work in Canada, but it
wasn't possible. "Some people say that I'm a traitor for selling it out of
the country, but there's no one in Canada that would buy it," he notes,
"What are you going to do? Nobody here has the money."
As for the $7-million, Mr. Berghammer laughed at suggestions he could invest
it. Instead, he plans to pay for his daughter's university education and
donate a significant chunk to charity. "I've got my eye set on bailing out
an Easter Seal camp that's just south of Elliot Lake," he says. "They need
quite a bit of money, and I think I'll give them about a half a million
right away."
While Mr. Berghammer's plan to give away much of his newfound wealth may
seem surprising, it's consistent with his community-minded nature. When he
lived in suburban Toronto Mr. Berghammer invited school groups into his
studio for free tours, and for the last several years he has hosted a
Christmas dinner in Elliot Lake for neighbours who would otherwise be alone
for the holidays.
Whatever money Mr. Berghammer doesn't donate will be used to maintain his
beloved house and to make life easier for him. "People keep saying 'Go
south, go south,' but that's not really a thing for me any more," he says.
"I just want to be able to pay my bills with a little more ease."
With several million dollars in his bank account, that really shouldn't be a
problem.
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