Yes, but Is It Art?

With Rupert Murdoch closing in on Dow Jones, we spoke with the artist who has captures the businessmen of the hour -- Dick Grasso, Lloyd Blankfein, and Jim Cramer -- on canvas. He's added Murdoch to the list.

"My thing is painting controversial Wall Street executives, exhibit them al fresco -- usually in front of the New York Stock Exchange -- and sell them on eBay while I'm doing that," Geoffrey Raymond said. "Rupert Murdoch struck me as a controversial Wall Street figure."

As noted on Dealbreaker, Raymond set up shop in the Financial District last week with a portrait of Murdoch for passers by to annotate. Employees of the Wall Street Journal, located downtown on Liberty Street, were asked to comment in red ink and everyone else in black.

"UNFAIR and IMBALANCED," wrote one Journal employee. "God Bless the USA!!!," wrote a civilian. "I don't care," wrote another. Raymond's favorite inscription, just above Murdoch's forehead, reads "NEWS IS SACRED." A Journal employee came out and penned the "N" before he saw his editor and ran off, but came back later to finish the thought.

The eBay auction for Murdoch's likeness was supposed to end on Sunday, but with no bids, Raymond has extended it until just after noon tomorrow. The piece starts at $3,500.

"My guess is that it's not gonna sell, which is not unusual," Raymond said.

Of the three other Wall Street personalities Raymond has painted, one sold via eBay (Grasso); another -- a crappy one, according to the artist -- didn't (Blankfein); and a third sold after the online auction expired (Cramer).

Raymond said he's sort of glad his painting, which he calls The Annotated Murdoch looks like it won't find a buyer. (Raymond's eBay listing for the painting shows no bids at the moment.)

"When you consider it as much of a historical document as a portrait, I think it will increase in value."

It will probably end up hanging on the wall in his living room for now.

So who will be Raymond's next macher-muse?

Maybe Mayor Mike Bloomberg, in anticipation of a presidential bid. Or Eliot Spitzer for current and former honchos of the NYSE to scrawl on.

Or -- gulp -- the man who owns Conde Nast Publications and this very web site, S.I. Newhouse. "I'd like to paint Si," Raymond wrote in an e-mail.

by Callen Bair