Felix Salmon was kind enough to cover the Art Market Monitor in his wide-ranging financial blog Market Movers. Felix used one of our charts to make a point about the bubble-ish nature of the London market. But since his post, it occurred to me the same chart could be made clearer to differentiate the February, June and October sales. Later this month we’ll have a similar report on the Impressionist and Modern market. We also hope to have some illuminating graphs about the entire auction market, plus some interviews to get us through the August drought.

In the meantime, here’s the chart that Felix references. It’s still available in the pdf too. Read the rest of this entry »

Category Focus update with all of your favorite charts which try to answer that nagging feeling something’s not quite right

If anyone expected the Contemporary Art sales in London to exhaust interest in the subject–at least until the next round of sales in October–they were rudely awakened by the announcement of Damien Hirst’s sale with Sotheby’s. Given the nature of both the artist and the sale, it is worth updating our data on the London Contemporary auction market. Read the rest of this entry »

The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art has provoked this exceptionally long review/rant from Portfolio’s Felix Salmon. The post is too long to summarize. Beyond Salmon’s nitpicking, it is noteworthy for the barely contained strong feelings Salmon clearly has. He seems to take art very seriously, which is good. But, perhaps, too seriously. To Salmon, art is an asset to be measured by its price. But the long rise in prices leaves him uneasy: Read the rest of this entry »

The “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” auction tests the market

Let’s start with the assumption that the experts at Sotheby’s have made a good survey of the market (see below) and are fairly confident that they can move all of the art Damien Hirst is planning to sell on September 14th and 15th in London. (Though one assumes there are no guarantees here so the auction is relatively risk-free for the house.) With that firmly in mind, Sotheby’s announced today the size and scope of the Beautiful Inside My Head Forever sale (including The Dream, left, estimated at between $4-6 million.) The sale will be 223 lots (divided into a day and evening sale) and is estimated at 65 million pounds! (That’s $130 million in funny American money.)

But the estimate isn’t really the issue. Hirst’s market performance continues to be strong despite a few recent failures of spot and spin paintings. Read the rest of this entry »

Art + Auction’s Impressionist and Modern sale report from New York’s May sales is available on line. At this juncture, it’s most interesting for Souren Melikian’s anguished view of the market. There is, he says, too much money and not enough right thinking out there. The report is titled Trophy Hunting but Melikian doesn’t think these trophies are any prizes. When the market values something he disapproves of, the buyers are status seekers; when they overlook a big name artist like van Gogh, they’re uneducated. But when the pieces he likes go for high prices, that validates his opinions. Read the rest of this entry »

What Happens When Art Becomes Another Asset?

First, the taxman gets suspicious; then you start borrowing against it. Read the rest of this entry »

Was Sotheby’s the Favorite to Win the YSL Collection?

Pinault Steps In and Wins the Contest for Christie’s.

What Will This Do for the Paris Auction Market?

London’s First Post gives us the back story on Christie’s not-so-surprising success in getting the YSL art collection to sell in Paris in the Winter of 2009. The Independent confirms that Sotheby’s was close to a deal and values the collection at more than $500 million, making it the largest single owner sale ever. Those who have seen the collection describe it as “a room full of masterpieces.”

Reuters adds this quote from YSL’s dealer:

Antique dealer Alexis Kugel, who told Le Figaro his relation with the collectors was the closest a dealer could have with his clients, said: “For Yves Saint Laurent art was a vital need, indispensable for his inspiration, like water to survive. It soothed his depressive character.”

The Times tries to pour cold water over the whole affair by turning it into an important market test–which it will be–and using a bitchy quote from Godfrey Barker: “We now learn that Saint Laurent moved stealthily to become one of the biggest buyers in the most overpriced sector of the art market - paintings from 1900-25, which cost £5m to £25m each,” said Godfrey Barker, an art-market expert. Read the rest of this entry »

Dasha Zhukov is making a bid for the Art/Fashion crown.

Is her appearance an indication of the top?

There is an old saw in the financial markets that when a trend is featured on a magazine cover, that’s an indication of a top. It’s all down hill from there. Well, Russians have become the media’s fixation when it comes to the art market. Look at this teaser. Could that mean Russians have already peaked in buying power and influence over the market? Or has Roman Abramovich’s very visible buying sent a signal to other Oligarch’s that it is open season on art? Read the rest of this entry »

With the Olympics Upon Us, Expect More Attention for Chinese Contemporary Art.

But with Sales Slowing and Prices Causing Consternation, Chinese Collectors are Looking for Other Ways to Value Their Art.

NPR offers this report on Chinese Contemporary art. But China’s top collector–Guan Yi–doesn’t think price is a useful way to value art. He’s got 800 pieces, a third of which are large installation works, and he’s planning a large museum in central Beijing to show them. Mr. Guan’s fascinating interview can be read here and here. But some excerpts will get you motivated: Read the rest of this entry »

Art isn’t the only asset to benefit from the global slide in equity values

Bloomberg reports on the popularity of colored diamonds and large white diamonds

“There’s a group of very savvy, tremendously wealthy people who have put a small portion of their fortunes aside to invest in diamonds,” said Francois Graff, managing director of London- based Graff Diamonds International. “They’ve made incredible returns.” Read the rest of this entry »