The Contents of Artist RETNA’s Abandoned Studio Are Up for Grabs

Heritage Auctions is staging a sale of the contents of the downtown Los Angeles street artist RETNA. The artist, already known for a troubled history, fell behind on the rent and the landlord, Aaron von Ossko, won a legal judgment that, under the Golden State’s civil code, allows him to treat the contents of the artist’s studio as abandoned property.  RETNA, whose given name is Marquis Lewis, grew up in Mid-City Los Angeles; the downtown studio was a popular spot for his peers to gather even as, Heritage points out in press materials, the neighborhood has gentrified to the extent that a new outpost of Soho House has opened just down the block. Heritage holds the record for a sale of RETNA’s work: $175,000 for the acrylic painting They Can’t Come (2015), in 2020. Seven works by the artist have cleared the $100,000 mark at auction, all since 2020. RETNA, untitled, undated. Courtesy Heritage Auctions. The studio’s contents, by comparison, offer a potentially much more affordable way to collect his work, with several lots bearing his trademark geometric script, informed by not only traditional urban graffiti but also Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy and ancient Egyptian and old-world hieroglyphics, being bid...