Asher Edelman Seeks Art Gallery Space on New York's East Side , Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

According to Bloomberg News Asher Edelman, a Wall Street raider turned art dealer, is seeking space to open a gallery on New York's Upper East Side that will show young and emerging artists.

Edelman, 68, has been a private dealer for about seven years, trading impressionist and modern works through Edelman Arts Inc. while promoting younger artists such as Yasmine Chatila, Christopher Winter and Cathy McClure. He is ending a joint venture in the Neuhoff Edelman Gallery because he prefers working on his own, he said.

Art dealing isn't as lucrative as trading stakes in companies, according to Edelman. In the 1980s and 1990s, the investor bought holdings in more than three dozen companies, from Canal-Randolph Corp., a real-estate holding company, to computer company Datapoint Corp. and champagne group Taittinger SA, sometimes profiting as he took control or induced management to boost the stock price.

``I can't make as much money in art as I used to on Wall Street, but I can make a good living,'' Edelman said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Edelman said the art market is showing scattered signs of weakness as bank losses mount from subprime mortgage investments. In the private art market, purchasers of high- priced works are driving harder bargains than they did two years ago, and some dealers are hurting after borrowing to finance an inventory that's losing value, he said.

``I think the time might come when some people stop bidding at auctions,'' Edelman said. ``I would still rather have art than dollars.''

The dealer said he isn't concerned about opening a new space at what may be the top of the market. Some staff from his private dealing business could move over to the new gallery, limiting the overhead to about $1 million a year, Edelman said.

His commission from brokering a sale of a $10 million Willem de Kooning or Andy Warhol picture would cover the cost, he said.