Costelana-Newman in Eduardo Lucero

Though the Newman Gallery for Contemporary Art is by all measures a smashing success, Director Sabrina Costelana-Newman is still seen less as an art world visionary than as a cold-blooded opportunist who will stop at nothing to gain power, fame and prestige. Adrian Korbel reports from Genoa City...

With her willowy figure and graceful bearing, glamorous Sabrina Costelana-Newman is tailor-made for the competitive, cutthroat art world. Elegant, approachable and insatiably curious, she's the perfect addition to any social occasion, be it an afternoon barbecue in Bridgehampton or a black-tie affair in Basel, Switzerland.

Her ability to "travel well" is no small matter in a frantically-social, ever shifting business where alliances can be forged over cocktails, expanded over the entree and severed abruptly by desert. More than one artworld wag says the new Mrs. Newman owes her success more to her ability to spot, cultivate and exploit important people than her ability to spot, cultivate and support artists. Word on the street is that in addition to jetting across the globe, Costelana-Newman has also been around the block more than once.

"Look, Sabrina got herself a rich husband and with him, the resources to continue her quest to become the most powerful woman in the art world. And if Victor Newman's billions won't travel to the artists, I guarantee you, the artists will be happy to travel to Genoa City and Victor Newman's billions. Artists love money as much, if not more, than the next person. That old "starving artist" cliche went out with Andy Warhol in the 70s," a friend observes.

"I adore Sabrina," she continues, "but you don't think for a minute that she got this fancy art institute opened here because world-famous artists are dying to show in Genoa City do you? I mean, c'mon."

June Wedding: Mr. and Mrs. Newman

In Costelana-Newman's case, the "starving curator" cliche is just as shopworn, say friends. Unwilling to be quoted by name, for fear of offending her notoriously prickly new husband, more than Costelana-Newman herself, more than a few "friends" and art world figures characterize her as a tenacious, savvy survivor, more than willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead.

And it's that raw ambition, that has tongues wagging from Main Street to the Champs Elysee, where she is characterized as the art world's answer to Anna Nicole Smith; common in every aspect but her beauty and ambition. It's not an entirely fair comparison, for while Costelana-Newman may be seen as an opportunist, she is hardly given to the kind of public displays and clueless utterances Ms. Smith was. Still...

"Without me, she wouldn't even be a receptionist in an art gallery, she'd be a shopgirl in a store across the street from a gallery," says Phillippe Chanderot of the woman who curated his mid-career retrospective at Paris's famed Pompidou Center last year.

At the time, rumors flew fast and furious that Costelanawas more interested in Chanderot's other talents than she was in his painting. As one collector put it "Most artists have to wait until they've got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel to get a one-person retrospective at a major museum like the Pompidou, and this guy gets one at what - 30? I'm sorry, but something was definitely not adding up there. Then you look at the two of them and you get it."

Chanderot himself openly admits to mixing business with pleasure with Costelana-Newman, and says she benefited as much, if not more, from the association.

To hear Chanderot tell it, the directors of Pompidou were so eager to get him into the museum that they were willing to allow a virtual unknown to pull the show together.

"Victor Newman is merely the latest Sabrina conquest," one in a series of carefully-calculated social and romantic dalliances, claims Chanderot, which she uses to further her career and consolidate power. Except that in his case, he claims, Costelana-Newman's calculations backfired.

Costelana-Newman in Eduardo Lucero at Restless Style's post-Emmy Hollywood bash

"She started off by seducing me because she wanted to get me for the Pompidou and take the credit," he claims adding that it's he and not Newman, who holds the key to Costelana-Newman's heart. "And she became obsessed with me. She still is, and how can I say 'no' to someone as beautiful as that? Why would I let what is so clearly a marriage of convenience get in the way of a grand passion?"

And the fact that Costelana-Newman and Chanderot still see each other, along with several other faux pas, figures prominently in her strained relationship with Victoria Newman with whom she's hosted some of Genoa City's most entertaining get-togethers as well as important gala evenings.

Costelana-Newman's former best friend, Victoria Newman is, of course, the daughter of Victor Newman.

The road from the front gate of the estate the new Mrs. Sabrina Costelana-Newman shares with her considerably-older husband is approximately one quarter of a mile. She opens the front door and greets a guest warmly. "So glad you could come!" she exclaims, as she guides the visitor to the enormous sitting room to the left of the entrance hall.

While certainly expensively-furnished, the room with its ornate, period furnishings is not one you would expect a young, cutting-edge art curator/collector to receive guests in and in fact, it's not Costelana-Newmans' first choice, either.

Her husband, whom she married a month ago in a lavish affair that tied up not only Genoa City street traffic but also air traffic has lived in the house for many decades. "I'm hoping that once Victor trusts my taste, he'll allow me to re-decorate," she explains. "Nothing too extensive, just clean it up visually, brighten up the rooms, like that."

"And maybe add some new artists to the collection," she laughs. "I mean, John Singer Sargent is wonderful, as is Renoir, as is, well, okay, Frederick Remington wouldn't be my first choice, but nonetheless..." her voice trails off. After a few seconds, she brightens to say "There just so much exciting stuff that's been happening in art for the past thirty, but particularly the past twenty years."

Would she include any work by Phillippe Chanderot in the art update of her new home?

Costelana-Newman takes a deep breath. "Perhaps," she says slowly, choosing her words carefully. "If the work was appropriate and Victor liked it."

She seems aware that Chanderot is a hot topic and that his public pronouncements have done little to assuage the damage to her reputation. In an interview with Paris Match that was quoted in New York's Page Six, Chanderot said of their affair "I was involved with someone else at the time she approached me with the idea for a one-man show. You can guess what happened. I wasn't about to let that opportunity pass."

Mrs. Newman gets down on the dance floor with an unidentified stranger at Restless Style's Hollywood soiree

When this is mentioned to Newman, she momentarily flinches, then regains her composure. "Another compelling reason not to read the tabloids. Philippe said that?" She takes a deep breath. "Nice... Look, I realize he has detractors, but I truly believed in him as an artist."

The past tense is notable, especially when Newman is confronted with his statement, claiming that he is the "love of her life" something Newman's estranged friend Victoria has confirmed to friends as well.

Victoria Newman is reported to have told friends repeatedly that she was certain her father knew nothing about Sabrina's relationship with Chanderot, and would have canceled the wedding had he known the two have continued to meet in Genoa City.

A social observer, an intimate of the Newman clan said of the situation "It's messy to say the very least. Think of it; Victoria can't ever be certain that Sabrina didn't befriend her in the first place to get to her father. And she can't be happy that her father, one of the world's richest and most eligible bachelors couldn't cast his net a bit wider in the search for a wife - perhaps one who doesn't cheat on him with old beaus the first chance she gets. Meanwhile, how secure can Sabrina possibly feel knowing that her stepdaughter has all of her secrets? It's a soap opera, that's for sure. And who can be sure that Sabrina won't decide at some point that she's tired of being married to someone old enough to be her grandfather?"

One thing is certain; despite the faltering economy, the art business, with all its intrigue, duplicity and backbiting remains red-hot and Genoa City's piece of that action is about to get a lot hotter.