Sender Skips Miami Parties, Buys Art as Hedge Fund Gains 53% , Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

According to Bloomberg.com, Adam Sender said he skipped the parties at Art Basel Miami Beach last week, buying about 10 works by ``undervalued'' artists such as Cindy Sherman and Jenny Holzer.

``I don't go to the parties,'' said the hedge-fund manager, who will be 39 on Friday, in a telephone interview. ``I go down there because it gives me a chance to go out to dinner with overseas dealers I don't see for most of the year.''

Sender, who revamped his Exis Capital Management Inc. after a 2006 loss, said a tripling of financial-market volatility enabled him to make 53 percent returns for his clients after fees this year. At the Miami art fair, which ended on Dec. 9, he added works by older artists Sherman, Holzer and Vito Acconci, and art by new names including Jim Lambie, Glenn Ligon and Melissa Gordon, to a collection he valued in March at more than $100 million.

He wouldn't say what his art might be worth today, after a doubling in prices for some artists, or how much money he is managing.

Securities firms and banks including UBS AG, the Miami fair's chief sponsor, have announced about $76 billion of losses and markdowns linked to the collapse of the U.S. subprime-mortgage market. Sender said that art prices continued to rise as new international buyers thronged the fair, which drew 43,000 people.

Buying in Advance

``Five years ago, you could walk around and things would be available at reasonable prices,'' Sender said. ``Now it's almost impossible to find something of value that's not already sold. You have to reserve it in advance.''

Art values may tumble ``at some point,'' Sender said. ``I wouldn't be surprised to see a steep correction, but to predict (the timing of) a top would be folly.''

Sender, who has a scrubbed, 1960s look, is one of a new breed of hedge-fund managers, including Steven Cohen and Daniel Loeb, who have built up holdings of contemporary artists from Damien Hirst and Richard Prince to Georg Baselitz. Setbacks with long- term investments taught Sender to focus on short-term trades, and he still seeks value in the art market, he said.

``I'm buying the great artists who are relatively undervalued,'' Sender said. ``You can still buy a great Sherman or Holzer for under $400,000. For some young Chinese artists, people are paying millions.''

Upside-Down Trees

His Miami purchases included a 1980s marble sarcophagus with an LED sign by U.S. artist Holzer, born in 1950. A similar work sold at auction in November for about $240,000, Sender said. He bought a recent light-box photograph by Rodney Graham, born in Canada in 1949, and one of the artist's images of upside-down trees, he said.

``Prices are up a bit since the November auctions for stuff I'm buying, but earlier pieces by Sherman, Holzer or Acconci are hard to come by,'' Sender said. ``Even if the market did fall apart, these are things I'd feel comfortable owning for 20 or 30 years. I'm not buying them to flip.''

Among younger artists, a Melissa Gordon painting cost him less than $10,000, Sender said. For about $250,000, he picked up a tall pair of totem poles made from stacked golf bags by Canadian artist Brian Jungen.

Most young artists he follows for five or 10 years before investing in their work, he said. ``I'm not chasing the next hottest thing.''