New York Magazine writes...

Aren't the people at Intelligencer (New York Magazine) as nice as they could possibly be. For your reading pleasure, here is what they threw down last week:

Artist Geoffrey Raymond, who has in the past peddled larger-than-life paintings of Maria Bartiromo, Dick Grasso, and Rupert Murdoch on Wall Street, was out on the Street today with his latest work, a portrait of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein titled Big Lloyd II (Now More Than Ever). The painting, an acrylic rendering of a smiling, multicolored Lloyd ("an excellent example of Mr. Raymond's drip technique," according to the artist's statement) with the words "Big Lloyd I (.6 Billion)" lingering in the space above it, is indeed big, at four feet, five inches. It is available on eBay at a starting price of $3,999. "I painted it in acknowledgment of Mr. Blankfein's stewardship of Goldman Sachs through a recently difficult environment on Wall Street," sayeth the artiste. "It is either homage or fromage — whichever isn't the cheese." So far, there are no bids.

They did screw up a couple of details which, I think, they fixed in later editions. Those, most notably, would be their confusion with the names of the two Lloyd paintings, and the inaccuracy regarding the painting's size.

However, those who read these pages closely will smile at the next to last line. Me? I'm saddened to report that the last line proved to be prophetic. It did not sell.

Which is not to say that it won't. It just didn't.