Following Up on London’s Impressionist and Modern Sales

Russian bidding is thought to have played its part in both sales [the Monet and Degas], as well as in the record prices paid for three early-20th-century Russian modernist paintings by Natalia Goncharova (£5.5 million), Vladimir Baranoff Rossine (£2.7 million) and Vera Rockline (£2 million) - all artists who have really prospered only since the Russian art buying spree began five years ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Week’s Impressionist and Modern Sales Whetted the Appetite

One of the interesting facts released by one of the auction houses last week was the large crossover between the Contemporary sales and Impressionist and Modern sales with 68% of the Impressionist and Modern buyers at Sotheby’s having also participated in the Contemporary sales. With that in mind, let’s look at what’s on offer this week through the eyes of the press: Read the rest of this entry »

First Night of Sales at Phillips de Pury Brings in $50 million

Evening Sale Well Below Low Estimate

Read the rest of this entry »

Severini Leads 102 million Pound Sale of Hand-Picked Winners with an Impressive 90% of Lots Sold

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not Just the Blockbusters–or Why a $30 million Picture Doesn’t Seem Like a Big Deal Anymore

The Master, Judd Tully, comes in with the first report on the Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale. Still hunkering down for the soft landing, Sotheby’s exceeds its pre-sale estimate. Though, to be accurate because the final sale includes 12+% of premium and more, the sale came in at the upper end of the pre-sale estimates. In Tully’s words: Read the rest of this entry »

Is There a Reason World-Class Pictures Keep Showing Up in the Trash?

You may remember when, late last year, a Rufino Tamayo painting that was salvaged from the sidewalks of New York sold at Sotheby’s for $1 million. Then, a few weeks ago, a popular UK radio personality admitted that his Damien Hirst “spot” picture may have accidentally gone to a thrift shop. Now we read these stories about a Baltimore Goodwill shop where the volunteers flagged a donation as too good to be sold. It turned out the Edouard-Leon Cortes canvas (shown) was worth $40,000 at auction.

$40,000 Painting Left at Goodwill (Baltimore Sun)

NPR professes amazement that the “art bubble” hasn’t burst

You have to wonder about the way the art market is covered when NPR runs this story today. Or the analysts covering Sotheby’s decide to upgrade the stock because of yesterday’s sale at Christie’s. Whatever the value of Sotheby’s stock should be, the sale at Christie’s is hardly a good indication of the quality or success of Sotheby’s sale.

With so much riding in the top ten lots in the sale, extrapolating from one sale to another (or one auction house to another) would seem to be a lousy way to measure the longer-term profitability of an auction house–or the art market as a whole, for that matter.

Ultra-Rich Collectors Help Keep Art Market Afloat (NPR)

Sotheby’s Shares Rise as Auctions Start Strong (Forbes.com)

Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Sale is Going Strong

Severini went for 15,000,000 pounds, well over the pre-sale estimate. Giacometti and late Picasso round out the top lots supporting last night’s numbers at Christie’s and the continuing trend of strong prices for certain prized works. Giacometti and Picasso’s late works, especially the Mousquetaires, have been durable performers over the last two years. This Picasso went for 5 million pounds ($10 million) and the Giacometti sold for 9 million pounds ($18 million.) The only weak performer was the Monet beach scene which sold below the low estimate; though, sell it did.

A full report with press links to follow.

Severini Work Sells for Record 15 Million Pounds (Bloomberg)

The Highest Total in Europe for an Impressionist/Modern sale; 81% of lots sold

Such is the strange nature of the press coverage of the art market that a solid sale with 81% sell-through can be reported with doubts.

The top end of the Impressionist market remains strong. Christie’s sale confirms what experts have been saying for several years now: the market likes quality. And it should be added that quality includes provenance. But the important statistic to emerge from last night’s sale was the weighting of the top ten lots in the total. At 86,932,500 pounds, the top ten lots represented 60% of the total sale value.

The average price for the Evening sale was 2,188,492 pounds, a figure comparable with the numbers last seen in New York in May where Christie’s had an average lot value of $6.3 million. The median price in last night’s sale was 1,060,450 pounds against a median of $3 million in New York.

Sotheby’s Gears Up for Tonight’s Impressionist and Modern Sale

Sotheby’s takes a very different tack tonight with its Impressionist and Modern sale. Christie’s proved, again, that there is great strength remaining in Impressionism. Sotheby’s follows its success with Munch with another great work from the Norwegian master (left) and more brightly colored Futurist works. Says Helena Newman:

“People’s choices are now being driven by image rather than the artist’s name. We’ve never seen a period where the bidding showed such a range of tastes.”

A Lot of Monet as Christie’s Sells Water Lilies for 41 million (The Times of London)