Ratner Post-Gala: Did Marty's Wife "Hoarde" Murakami Swag?

The Brooklyn Museum Bruce Ratner Gala continues to produce interesting stories. Radar, which always entertains us, but doesn't often offer up Brooklyn fodder, is doing so in a big way with a story about the wife of a certain Brooklyn Borough President allegedly cornering the market on Murakami swag after the big, controversial event. To wit:

Without a doubt, the person who got the most out of Thursday night's Takashi Murakami retrospective opening at the Brooklyn Museum of Art was Jamie Snow, the wife of Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz. She grabbed eight of the limited-addition Murakami technicolor fiberglass place mats that were being given out as gifts to party-goers—mats that fetched up to $1,000 on eBay after similar events. And she was wasn't about to give even one of them up...The mats were intended to be taken by seated guests, but after wolfing down dinner, the enterprising Snow, perhaps sensing a business opportunity, rounded up eight of the mats and rushed over to Murakami to have them signed. When party-goers who ended up placemat-less asked her if she would kindly relinquish one, Snow snidely remarked, "You guys really should have acted faster. This is Brooklyn," and skulked away.

Subsequent attempts to secure a mat from the hoarder, including one made by an elderly, charming Nigerian fellow, were met with the following variety of responses: "No," "Nope!" "I can't hear you!" "You snooze you lose, buddy," "Forget it!" and, in what can only be considered a charming nod to the borough her husband represents, the always effective, "I won't say anything but I will stick my tongue out at you." (Naomi Campbell walked away with six of them when the same party was thrown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.)

When Markowitz himself was asked to intervene—he is, after all, purportedly a politician, and settling minor squabbles is his mandate—he responded like a man who had seen it before: "Just try being married to her."

A fascinating story and one that we suspect will have "legs" as they say in the business.