Also... Brassner lived alone with an art collection The Times reported was worth more than $3 million.
Wish I had his money trouble!
One relevance is that he is not a "Trump pick." Another is he may be ticked off, so stood aside to let Mueller and RR use their hand-picked lackey. Speculation can run rampant with this info, have at it!
Brassner lived alone with an art collection The Times reported was worth more than $3 million.
_____________________
Valuation does not equal market price. Valuation (or book value, aka: received prices at listed public auctions) is often higher than current market will bear. Demand for art is fickle and valuations rise/fall with trends. Marketing is key.
Original Warhols or prints? There is a lot of hanky-panky in the high-end print market. See the various scandals of the ‘90s (IIRC; could have been ‘80s) concerning Dali lithos that were being photo screen printed onto new litho stones, etched, printed and then fraudulently signed/numbered & sold as ‘investment quality original Dali lithographs’. The market became saturated with these so-called ‘Dalis’ and the prices sank. (A relative worked at the time for a Las Vegas gallery that was deep into this particular scam. Note: Las Vegas art galleries are still tourist traps, even if the tourists are very wealthy international gamblers.)
Altho, it is odd that he has generational and current family art dealer connections, so even at sale prices, relative to book, that collection should be turnable for cash. Just not necessarily $3M.
Also, if he had lowered the price on the real estate, he should have been able to sell it. Staying there still incurred property taxes and whatever other cost accrue.
Maybe its as simple as a drug addict having alienated family and he had just enough income to cover expenses. Or as complicated as he was a very convenient patsy. Who knows?