Robert Newman was already sifting, sorting, and sweating through countless piles of paper. Which to keep, which to sell, which to give away? — When he came to the closet door, he hadn’t opened it for 20 years. Inside, it was crammed from floor to ceiling and piled high.
“Oh, Dad,” he mumbled to himself. “What have you done to me?”
His brother, Harry, had similar thoughts. “My dad was the biggest pack rat ever,” he said. “And we are dealing with it.”
To be fair, it’s not all Dad’s fault. This is what happens when you spend three generations building a family-run business from a history of buying and selling, Most of it is on paper — paper that is beautiful, valuable, and hard to let go of.
A business founded in 1898 as The Old Print Shopare about to move from the Lexington Avenue storefront in Murray Hill, which they have occupied since 1921, to a more sophisticated two-story space a few blocks west. Prints by early 20th century American masters like lithographs, illustrations by John James Audubon, New York City landscapes, antique maps, contemporary art Edward Hopper John Sloan When thomas hart benton.
The store’s history is full of marquee names. Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Andy Warhol were loyal customers. Berenice Abbott shot Promotional photo Gallery and family portraits of the owner.
Even before the move turmoil, the first-floor gallery was a throng of desks, bins, and file cabinets that made it hard to find a staff of seven. The worn pine floorboards and overhead plumbing look more like a hardware store, and the brothers come across more like chatty men behind the counter than curators. Their art terms range from “really dirty” to “utterly rare.”
Don’t be fooled. The company’s president, Robert, 65, is a master trained as a printmaker and promotes the art of more than 75 living artists. His 60-year-old vice president, Harry, is a noted expert in sports prints and maps. They have tracked and authenticated works for dozens of private collectors and museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery.
“I don’t know of any map and print dealer that has survived this long. Their influence puts them at the top of the pyramid. William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, obtained many maps and prints for museums and libraries. “But they’re not going to be the center of attention,” he added. they are not flashy.
They would regret losing the walk-in traffic that the street-level display windows attracted. Prince”. Sometimes different families lived in small apartments upstairs.
“I miss the old place, yeah. It was home,” said Robert. “But like it or not, we have to embrace change because if we don’t, we will die.”
In March, tired of the repairs and bureaucracy that comes with owning a building for the elderly, the brothers sold a small piece of land in Lexington near 30th Street to a developer. (“Luxury condo,” Robert said wide-eyed.) They hope to close their doors in August and reopen in late September in a space they bought and renovated at 49 West 24th Street.
Embracing change is not always easy, especially for historians. On a recent morning, the brothers tried to sift through mundane material—sculpted portraits of forgotten people, memorial views of obscure places—but it was too painful to throw away much.
Staff was arranging pickup of empty frames over the phone materials for art, a city program that guides donations to artists. There was an earlier inquiry from Rikers Island asking for a frame for the detainee project. “He’s one of the stranger requests,” he says Robert. “But sure, why not?”
They plan to move about three-quarters of their holdings into the new shop and keep or donate the rest. “We are looking to upgrade our collections by prioritizing quality,” he said. “We want to polish it up a bit.”
If there’s a bit of a speed bump in clearing three floors of the shop (mildew wreaks havoc on anything made out of paper, you find a few boxes of printed matter), it pays off every now and then. increase.Found by the Newman Brothers James McNeill Whistler Etching they lost sight of. Even an overstuffed closet had a rare watercolor view of 1820s New York City as a prize.
Finding gems in unlikely places is where the business begins.
The brothers’ grandfather, Harry Shaw Newman, was cleaning out the attic of his mother’s boarding house in New Jersey shortly after World War I. Currier & Ivesa New York publisher whose inexpensive lithographs became household staples in 19th-century America.
Mr. Neumann sought out other prints and paintings for Mr. Gottschalk and bought the business from him in 1928. He was self-taught in the arts and his fame grew as he acquired important works. A former Secretary of the Navy and collector of maritime prints, Roosevelt visited the store extensively shortly after being elected president in 1932. He purchased the Currier & lves portfolio to hang in the Oval Office. (As president, Kennedy, a Navy veteran, also purchased Navy prints from the store.)
Shortly after World War II, Newman’s son Kenneth joined the business, and the two sailed to Europe, buttering art dealers with real butter and eggs and selling rare goods on the continent. Got it.
Kenneth’s sons Robert and Harry recall a family road trip in a station wagon with their father. Handling wasn’t always white-gloved. A model of a ship with a broken mast came out of the car. His 18th-century globe, which their grandfather had dropped, was rolled into an oval.
The brothers remain vigilant against undue caution. Conservation interest is so high that treasures may only be displayed in pristine surroundings, for limited periods of time, or not at all. “When the conservation department gets a museum, it becomes less interesting,” said Robert.
In an old print shop, even in a new space, the only temperature and humidity controls are heating and air conditioning.
The gallery has weathered the flooding of ancient plumbing. Fires are always scary, but the brothers seem more nervous about water damage from the sprinkler system that the new building needs.
Their biggest challenge has been changing fashion trends, and the shop has had mixed success.
The family had the foresight to purchase paintings by 19th-century American masters. Frederick Remington When George Caleb BinghamBut we sold many of them in the mid-20th century before prices skyrocketed. winslow homer The oil painting sold for $45,000 in 1964. Today, according to Robert’s estimate, $45 million in revenue is possible.
“In the 1960s, history was more valuable than art,” he said. “Today art is more valuable than history.”
In fact, it’s worth almost anything. In May, a Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe sold for her $195 million. But he suggested in 1979 that Warhol trade contemporary art for historical illustrations. Monroe silk uses her screen suite for one of her Audubon bird prints.
“Dad wouldn’t do it,” said Harry. “He had no interest in that sort of thing.” nearly kicked him out.”
Today we offer prints for all types of budgets since 2005. black and white etching 1894 $75 Midtown Building Advertisement Color drypoint print by Mary Cassatt for $325,000.
The days of barn gold sorting and tag selling are long gone. Trading has moved online. “Antique Roadshow” aside, consumer appetite for anything pre-Midcentury Modern is down. “Antique has become a dirty word,” said Robert.
Still, the Newmans have been in business long enough to believe that will change. Robert’s son, Brian, 39, works at the store. Harry’s son, his 23-year-old Scott, spent the summer between college terms helping with the move.
When they had finished packing, Scott and his uncle stopped to look at a wall-sized map of New York City commissioned by the British government in 1766 (now worth $325,000). Their conversations range from the strategy of the Revolutionary War, to the burning of the Library of Alexandria, the fall of ancient Carthage, and beyond. The future felt like a footnote to the swell of history in the room.