Activists protesting outside Dan Loeb’s Hamptons estate during a $5,000-a-plate fundraiser for Andrew Cuomo. Image: Erica Berger via Flickr
Activists from a group known as the Hedge Clippers showed up Saturday evening (July 11) outside the waterfront home of hedge fund mogul and Sotheby’s board member Dan Loeb.
Loeb, who recently won a sometimes bruising proxy battle with Sotheby’s, eventually won three board seats, for himself and two colleagues he nominated. Ruprecht announced his resignation soon after.
Saturday night’s protest happened during a $5,000-a-plate fundraiser for New York governor Andrew Cuomo. The Hedge Clippers say they are “condemning the two leaders for advancing a conservative agenda that harms working people.”
According to an email artnet News received from Hedge Clippers, Loeb, a financial backer of Republicans in New York and nationally, “has funded efforts to prevent higher taxes on the rich, to privatize public schools, and to block wage increases, harming working people in the process.”
The email, which asserts that 300 activists turned up for the protest, continues: “With help from Loeb and other hedge fund leaders, Cuomo has worked closely with Republicans across the state to do the bidding of his billionaire donors.”
In response, Cuomo’s spokesman Rich Azzopardi questioned the protestors.
“The governor’s progressive accomplishments are nationally recognized and stand on their own,” Azzopardi told artnet News over email. “This was just some more performance art from the same paid political advocates under a different name.”
Participants at the event handed out golden hedge clippers as “inequality awards” while large aerial Hedge Clippers banners flew above Loeb’s East Hampton estate during the protest, according to the group.
Image: Erica Berger via Flickr
Meanwhile, the New York Post reports that Loeb actually “liked” the Facebook page on which the Hedge Clippers announced plans for the protest.
The hedge fund titan “loves a rumble,” according to the Post.
For related coverage see:
Cleaners Who Protested Wages at Sotheby’s Barred from the Building