posted by Neil Gaiman

 I spent yesterday in Dallas, at the Heritage Auction headquarters -- I had decided to auction off some artwork and memorabilia to benefit two charities (The Authors Literary Fund and the Hero Initiative, which help authors/writers and comics creators who have fallen on hard times or who need help), and, just as importantly, I wanted to give something back to the artists whose art I was entrusting to new custodians. 

It seems to me fundamentally wrong and inequitable that art that artists sold for $50 or a hundred dollars thirty or forty years ago now sells for hundreds or thousands of times that amount, but the artists, most of whom are old, some of whom are no longer working or not working as they were, never see another penny. I decided the best way to change that would be to set an example, and show people another way of doing it.

Here's the New York Times article before the auction: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/arts/design/neil-gaiman-auction-collectibles.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Xk0.5PkB.9iQtuvn6Bwof&smid=url-share

And here's me in Dallas two nights ago, walking around the exhibition before the auction with Robert Wilonsky from Heritage, with guest appearances by my oldest friend Geoff Notkin, whose fault this all is: 

and for the very curious, the whole live auction is also up on YouTube. I tell a lot of stories about the things that are up for auction.
The auction made a lot of money, and it's going to do a lot of good, and that makes me very happy. Thank you to all the lovely helpful people at Heritage Auctions, to all of the bidders, lucky or otherwise, and to all of the artists, craftspeople and geniuses without whom it could never have happened.

Labels:  Authors League Fund, geoffrey notkin, artists, Hero Initiative, auctions