Press

STREET SMARTS BY RALPH DELUCA: 5 PIECES OF ADVICE FOR ART COLLECTORS HEADING INTO THE BILLION-DOLLAR FALL AUCTION SEASON

This is Street Smarts, a new column from art advisor Ralph DeLuca that offers art world veterans and newcomers alike a straight-talking, no-bullshit guide to the aloof and difficult-to-crack contemporary art market. Advisor Ralph DeLuca breaks down the tricky particularities of the market for those looking to make a bid.

Cultured Magazine, November 2024

THE 135 TOP ART WORLD PROFESSIONALS

The ARTnews Top Art World Professionals list focuses on the leaders in 12 categories within the United States, the largest single national market for art.

Advisers maintain extensive Rolodexes that may provide access to highly desirable works; they offer clients a plethora of services in building and managing art collections, including estate planning, appraisal, and ongoing oversight.

ARTnews, October 2024

THE RUNDOWN: YOUR CRIB SHEET FOR THE COMINGS AND GOINGS IN THE ART WORLD THIS WEEK AND BEYOND…

She found herself seated with the art adviser Ralph DeLuca and DiCaprio, who is one of DeLuca’s clients and close friends—DiCaprio, as we all know, is a massive collector of contemporary art, fossils, comics, you name it. The three of them stayed long after dinner talking, and as soon as DiCaprio heard about the Artists for Kamala sale, he immediately offered to help, and then he had the idea to consign a work from his collection to be sold, with all the proceeds going to the campaign.

Vanity Fair, September 2024

MEET THE MAN WHO SOLD SYLVESTER STALLONE’S $5.4 MILLION PATEK PHILIPPE: GEOFF HESS

Geoff Hess, Sotheby’s global head of watches, explains why watch collecting suddenly feels so fun again. Back in 2019, decades after receiving that signed picture of Stallone, Hess reconnected with the actor after a chance meeting with the very prominent art advisor, Ralph DeLuca, who is very close to Sly.

GQ, August 2024

CULTURED’S 2024 YOUNG COLLECTORS LIST: PATRICK FINNEGAN

He’s quickly scooped up pieces by artists like Anna Weyant, Seth Becker, Jorge Galindo, Daniel Correa Mejía, Alexander James, and so many more. He’s also managed to become a client of celebrity advisor Ralph DeLuca, whom he credits with helping to refine his eye and cultivate gallery relationships.

Cultured Magazine, July 2024

DEALERS ON THE BEST AND THE WURST OF ART BASEL, AND MORE JUICY ART WORLD GOSSIP

Ralph DeLuca, advisor: “It seemed to be a mostly European audience this year. And I know the American galleries try to prioritize non U.S.-based buyers in Basel. Luckily, I have strong enough access and relationships with the galleries I buy from that the things my clients were interested in were dealt with before the fair opening.”

Artnet, June 2024

CULTURED’S POWER ART ADVISOR LIST: 20 ADVISORS SHAPING THE WORLD’S TOP COLLECTIONS

CULTURED consulted expert contributors, gallerists, art-fair executives, and collectors from around the globe to assemble a group of trustworthy and influential advisors shaping some of the world’s top collections. While their efforts often unfold behind the scenes, these figures are critical to informing what we value—and to building the art history of the future.

Cultured Magazine, June 2024

THE PRICE OF A DOLLAR AND THE RETURN OF THE COLLECTOR’S MARKET

“Galleries and artists need to understand that three or four stellar auction results don’t mean the price should automatically move up. You need to play this a little more like a chess game,” art adviser Ralph DeLuca told ARTnews. “Often you see younger artists go to bigger galleries, and prices go up because they’re used to selling at a higher price point and they have more overhead. But I don’t know if that’s the best thing for a younger artist’s career in most cases.”

ARTnews, May 2024

Which Rashid Johnson Painting Would You Buy With a $1 Million Budget?

In the latest installment of ‘This or That,’ Ralph DeLuca weighs in on two punchy paintings going up for auction this week in New York.

Artnet, May 2024

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR FRIEZE?

One collector in particular stood out: Leonardo DiCaprio was there, walking around with his art dealer pal Helly Nahmad and the adviser Ralph DeLuca. At one point he ducked into the David Kordansky booth, full of works by Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo and Louise Lawler.

Vanity Fair, May 2024

MEET ADVISOR RALPH DELUCA, THE SELF-MADE CELEBRITY WHISPERER WHO’S WON OVER THE ART WORLD

He doesn’t have a college degree or an auction house pedigree, but the New Jersey native has risen through the art market’s most insular and illustrious ranks—earning the ear of celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Sylvester Stallone along the way.

Cultured Magazine, May 2024

PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS MADE ARTISTS AND DEALERS RICH. WHAT IF MANY ARE JUST ‘TOOLS FOR FLIPPERS’?

I had been thinking a lot about private foundations—their proliferation and impact on the rise in prices for contemporary art. They are on the minds of many in the art industry right now, since the bellwether auctions in New York next month will feature works from Miami’s de la Cruz family, whose private foundation just abruptly closed, following the death of its founder, Rosa de la Cruz.
“The word ‘foundation’ is one of the most misused words in the art world,” DeLuca told me this week, when I called him to talk about his post. “I don’t know why people hear the word ‘foundation’ and they think ‘public’ and ‘permanence.’ It sounds like a fortress, a safe place to put work.”

Artnet, April 2024

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tracee Ellis Ross and Gayle King Hit New York Art Parties

The New Museum gala at Cipriani South Street drew a crowd of more than 500 artists, philanthropists and other cultural figures, among them Leonardo DiCaprio and Tracee Ellis Ross who hosted the evening. Nina Westervelt for The New York Times.
Guests included Leonardo DiCaprio, who slipped in quietly during cocktail hour with his art adviser, Ralph DeLuca, to congratulate Mr. Condo, a friend of his; the photographer Cindy Sherman; and the artist Jeff Koons.

The New York Times, April 2024

THIS YEAR’S FRIEZE LOS ANGELES PULLS LEONARDO DICAPRIO AND ROBERT DOWNEY JR., BUT SLOWER AND MORE SELECTIVE SALES

“The market was just running on a lot more heat than quality,” said New York advisor Ralph DeLuca, but the fast fashion of trend chasing seems to be dying down. “I think it's more about buying value than just buying something that everyone wants.”

Cultured Magazine, March 2024

BELLAGIO’S LATEST EXHIBIT OF CONTEMPORARY WORKS REIMAGINES WHAT MAKES AN ARTIST ICONIC

Curated by art advisor Ralph DeLuca, the intimate gallery highlights unique pieces from Yoshitaka Amano, Sanford Biggers, George Condo, Esther Mahlangu, the Haas Brothers and more.

Las Vegas Weekly, January 2024

BGFA Levels-up with ICONS OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Esteemed art collector and advisor, Ralph DeLuca, has curated a bright, witty, and thought-provoking show, featuring paintings and sculptures by ten of today’s most exciting and coveted living artists.

Shulman Says, November 2023

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Art Advisor Sets the Record Straight

“What I do is very much a collaboration, therefore I’m as particular about who I work with as I am about the art that I buy,” DeLuca, who runs a boutique art advisory firm, told Observer via email. In addition to DiCaprio, he also works with stars like Sylvester Stallone.

Observer, May 2023

LA Frieze 2023: The Los Angeles Art World Is Having Its Gilded Age Moment

This week, Hauser & Wirth opened a West Hollywood space with a show of new work by market kingpin George Condo. Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Pacino showed up…Pacino arrived with his adviser, Ralph DeLuca.

Vanity Fair, February 2023

NOTA BENE: This Week in the Art World

As a respected advisor to bold faced names and publicly traded companies…Ralph is witty, honest, passionate and not afraid to call ’em like he sees ’em. You won’t want to miss his stories and his hot takes.

Nota Bene, January 2023

“With the Wrong Prints, Your House Could Look Like a Dentist’s Office”

Collector Ralph DeLuca on How to Make Good (Not Bad) Decisions at a Print Fair…Here’s what caught the noted poster collector’s eye at the fair.

Artnet, October 2022

MGM Resorts Intl | Caldonia

Take an inside look at Ralph DeLuca’s collection of concert and film posters from some of the most iconic African American performers in history. Caldonia: now on display at Bellagio Las Vegas Gallery of Fine Art. Mr. DeLuca is most known for his legendary collection of rare movie posters, but for 15 years he actively, and aggressively, collected rare Blues 78s, mostly Pre-War. The latest exhibition at Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art is Caldonia: Concert and Film Posters from The Ralph DeLuca Collection, which consists of 44 vintage advertising posters for films and performances that featured African American actors and musicians dating back to the 1920s up to the 1970s.

MGM Resorts, August 2022

Ralph DeLuca’s Pre-War Blues 78s collection
(Auction #4,) Highlights!

Mr. DeLuca is most known for his legendary collection of rare movie posters, but for 15 years he actively, and aggressively, collected rare Blues 78\s, mostly Pre-War.

John Tefteller, August 2022

Bellagio Las Vegas Fine Art Gallery Showcases African American History

The latest exhibition at Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art is Caldonia: Concert and Film Posters from The Ralph DeLuca Collection, which consists of 44 vintage advertising posters for films and performances that featured African American actors and musicians dating back to the 1920s up to the 1970s.

Vegas Magazine, July 2022

Editors’ Picks:
15 Events for Your Art Calendar

For its final show before merging with Lévy Gorvy and Amalia Dayan to form LGDR, Salon 94 pairs artworks by African American artists including Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Stuart Davis with historic posters featuring music and films by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, the Shirelles, and Little Stevie Wonder.

Artnet, March 2022

Salon 94 Will Present "Caldonia: Concert and Film Posters from the Collection of Ralph DeLuca"

“Caldonia: Concert and Film Posters from the Collection of Ralph DeLuca” presents a rich and varied archive of designs that have rarely been seen by audiences today, including the King himself, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, arguably the greatest American composer of the 20th Century.

Hypebeast, March 2022

Salon 94 Honors Black Cinematic, Sonic, and Visual Art

Art advisor and poster collector Ralph DeLuca’s personal collection of jazz concert and movie posters can now be viewed at Salon 94’s final exhibition Caldonia: Concert and Film Posters From the Collection of Ralph DeLuca, through March 26.

Metropolis, March 2022

The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s

This exhibition comes to Poster House through a generous loan from The Ralph DeLuca Collection.

Poster House, February 2022

An Interesting Journey From Banking to Art: Ralph DeLuca

DeLuca has been a personal art advisor to many billionaires and celebrity clients, such as Sylvester Stallone, Leonardo DiCaprio. He has one of the world’s largest collections of vintage movie posters. "I paid world record prices for movie posters." claims Ralph.

Yahoo, July 2021

Why the Biggest Blue-Chip Art Collectors in the World Are Pumping Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Into the Sports Memorabilia Market

Those who as kids had trading cards spilling out of shoeboxes now buy them for both sentimental and investment reasons. “It makes you feel young again,” said Ralph DeLuca, a consummate collector of trading cards, vintage movie posters, and contemporary art. “And the fact that something that brings them pleasure is also an amazing investment vehicle, if you handle it right, is very intriguing to people.”

Artnet, July 2021

Pawn Stars Movie Poster and Pop Culture Expert

Featured on the TV series Pawn Stars as their Poster and Pop Culture Expert.

Pawn Stars, April 2021

Six Art World Power Couples You Should Know

Sean Rad and Lizzie Grover both chartered careers dedicated to disruption as the founder of Tinder and Homme, respectively. When they arrived in the art world, they continued to surprise by carefully building out a unique collection dedicated to subjects with gravity with the help of advisor Ralph DeLuca.

Cultured Magazine, February 2021

Advice For a Miami Art Week Like None Other

We asked some of our favorite art advisors to guide us through the last flurry of 2020. “George Condo, Sanford Biggers, Jonathan Lydon Chase, Sarah Lucas, Robert Crumb to name a few favorites. Art fairs and auction houses are hotspots for discovering talented, diverse and emerging artists.”

Cultured Magazine, December 2020

Columbus Museum of Art Celebrates the Harlem Renaissance at 100

The exhibition presents an important selection of photographs by James Van Der Zee, as well as, dozens of vernacular photographs from the Ralph DeLuca Collection of African American Vernacular Photography.

Art & Object, October 2018

Philomene Magers, co-owner of Sprüth Magers, prepares to host “Power”, a show of works by 36 African-American women.

Additionally, 100 African American Vernacular postcard-sized photographs chosen from the collection of the movie memorabilia dealer Ralph DeLuca reflect a time that was “post civil war but pre civil rights”.

Financial Times, January 2017

Phillips’s Emerging Auction Sells 74% of Lots in Anxious Market

Ralph DeLuca, a collector who attended the sale said, “If people trade emerging art like stocks, they shouldn’t be shocked when prices go down.”

Bloomberg, September 2016

Bullitt, Blow-Up, & Other Dynamite Movie Posters of the 20th Century

Bullitt, Blow-Up, & Other Dynamite Movie Posters of the 20th Century is curated by Ralph DeLuca. The show focuses on seldom-exhibited posters that incorporate photography to dramatize a variety of film genres, from Hollywood thrillers to influential films of the 1960s-1990s.

Artsy, July 2016

New Acquisition: The Mike Kaplan Poster Collection

This gift continues an effort by poster expert Ralph DeLuca to increase high-level support for LACMA’s interdepartmental graphic design initiative—a program that strategically builds holdings to complement our other collecting areas, in consultation with sister institutions such as the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

LACMA, April 2016

Metropolis’ Poster Leads $1.2 Million Auction of Movie Memorabilia

The winning bidder was East Coast collector and dealer Ralph DeLuca, who had made the initial $700,000 offer to the Bankruptcy Court.

Hollywood Reporter, December 2015

Artnet News Top 200 Art Collectors Worldwide for 2015

To chronicle our times and these champions of the arts who hail from all corners of the planet and every possible background, artnet News has compiled the ultimate two-part list. Our roster of collectors features those who have been most active within the past 12 months and have shown a remarkable commitment to collecting.

Artnet, April 2015

Vintage Movie Poster Auction at Paddle8

Collector Ralph DeLuca discusses the multi-faceted importance of movie posters beyond their intention of advertising, noting that “vintage posters show us which trends in typography held weight, chart the public rise and fall of famous faces, and preserve the rhetoric we used to talk about these figures.”

Cool Hunting, January 2015

Meet 20 of the World’s Most Innovative Art Collectors

Ralph DeLuca
This former stock broker from New Jersey got his start collecting film posters: Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane signed by Welles; the original 1931 Dracula poster, formerly owned by Nicholas Cage; and the original poster for Metropolis, which made headlines when DeLuca paid $1.2 million for it at auction. What began in the early 1990s as a passion project has evolved into a sizable collection that has grown to include works of contemporary art.

Artnet, October 2014

Coming Soon to an Auction Near You

$191,200: Heritage sold this poster for the 1942 film ’Casablanca’ in its Nov. 29 auction.

The Wall Street Journal, February 2013

NJ Collector Ralph DeLuca Pays $1.2M for Metropolis Poster Group in Courtroom Auction

DeLuca, who owns the film memorabilia website RalphDeLuca.com, outbid three formidable competitors in a Dec. 13 auction at the US Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles. He paid $1.2 million to acquire one of only four known examples of the iconic Metropolis three-sheet. Two of those four are held in institutional collections; the other two [including DeLuca’s] are privately.

PR Newswire, January 2013

Collector pays $1.2 million for rare posters, including 'Metropolis'

A film memorabilia collector paid $1.2 million for nine rare and early film posters, including the world’s highest-valued poster of the 1927 film "Metropolis," in a bankruptcy auction in Los Angeles on Thursday, the trustee in the bankruptcy case said.Ralph DeLuca, who owns New Jersey-based film memorabilia company Movie Archives Inc, won the bidding against three others in the court auction

Today, December 2012

Rare “Metropolis” poster fetches high price in U.S. auction

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A film memorabilia collector paid $1.2 million for nine rare and early film posters, including the world’s highest-valued poster of the 1927 film “Metropolis,” in a bankruptcy auction in Los Angeles on Thursday, the trustee in the bankruptcy case said. Ralph DeLuca, who owns New Jersey-based film memorabilia company Movie Archives Inc, won the bidding against three others in the court auction, said trustee John J. Menchaca.

Chicago Tribune, December 2012

Movie Poster Collector Ralph DeLuca as featured on BBC News

This is a BBC news interview about movie posters featuring expert collector Ralph DeLuca. This interview took place after he bought the original 1931 Dracula poster featuring Bela Lugosi from hollywood actor Nicolas Cage’s collection for over $300,000!

BBC News, May 2012

INVESTOR LEAVES WALL STREET; PUTS HIS MONEY IN POSTERS

Ralph DeLuca knows a thing or two about investing. For ten years he worked on Wall Street as an investment banker……While investment bankers were buying and selling packaged investments that were predestined for failure, DeLuca began looking for something with “real investment value.”
“I got out because I wanted to deal in something more tangible.”

Antique Week, April 2009