The Big Deal

The mystery surrounding the sale of the Edward G. and Gladys Lloyd Robinson art collection for $3,250,000 (TIME, March 4), was finally cleared up. Not very silent on a peak in St. Moritz, Greek Shipping Tycoon Stavros Spyros Niarchos let it be known last week that he is the collector for whom Manhattan's M. Knoedler & Co. Inc. bought 58 paintings and a bronze from Movie Tough Guy Robinson.

It was a unique deal. Obligated to realize the cash value of the collection under the terms of a divorce settlement, Art Lover Robinson sold it through Knoedler's, then bought back for himself 14 paintings worth an estimated $500,000. For the works Niarchos acquired, the price was about $2,500,000. Estimated commission to Knoedler's: $250,000. To help the highly emotional Robinsons reach agreement with each other and with a buyer, Knoedler's had assigned a mobile task force to the transaction (one man to Robinson, another to his wife, a third to Niarchos) and worked six months before the deal was closed.

With this purchase Niarchos, one of the richest men in the world, is well on his way toward becoming one of the world's great collectors. (His prize painting is El Greco's Pietà, for which he paid $400,000.) With town houses in Paris and Athens, a penthouse duplex in Manhattan, a mansion on Long Island, a London penthouse at Claridge's, a chateau on the French Riviera, a lush Bermuda beach residence and a 190-ft. yacht, the Creole, biggest privately owned sailing vessel in the world, Niarchos has acres of wall space, always a challenge to the ardent collector. He plans to hang some of the newly acquired paintings in the Manhattan penthouse, others in the Paris house.

Meanwhile, with the help of Salvador Dali, Niarchos is making another sort of contribution to art. The Spanish painter is painting the Greek magnate. Explained Dali: "I wanted to paint him as I first saw him when he visited me at my home on the beach near Barcelona. He swam in from the Creole, and I saw him rising from the sea like a Greek god."