Art Market Monitor

Bloomberg turns Le-Min Lim’s Asia Week preview into a gloomy take on the correlation of the art and financial markets. The big news in the article is Artprice.com’s Pierre Capelle’s claim that the art market correlates to the financial markets but lags “by three to four days.” A misquote? It’s hard to see how such a periodic market as the art market could be in such close correlation to a constant market like the financials. Even a Three-to-four month lag would seem tightly linked and closer than any previous claims.

Art prices won’t escape the effects of the drop in financial markets, said Pierre Capelle, manager of econometrics department at Artprice.com. “The art-market movement is completely co-related to the stock and currency markets,” said Capelle, lagging behind by “three to four days.” The Artprice Global Index, which tracks sales of fine-art works, fell in the January to July period, the first decline in six years, said Capelle. Based on Artprice.com’s online survey of its members, about 49 percent polled say sentiment on the economic climate is “unfavorable.”

How does this impact the Asian art market? Dealers there are mixed in their opinions:

“The outlook is dimming for Chinese contemporary art,” said Tian Kai, a Beijing-based art dealer. Buyers may attend auctions to “find pieces at bargain-basement prices,” he said. [ . . . ]

Still, buyers may be surprised by the resilience of the Asian art market, said Shirley Ben Bashat, who runs Opera Gallery in Hong Kong. She said traffic at her gallery unexpectedly increased after Lehman’s bankruptcy as people moved money from the stock market to art. [ . . . ]

“I wouldn’t rule out a surprise,” said art-dealer Tian, 34. “Asia’s art market might be more resilient than thought.”

`National Treasure’ May Support Sotheby’s Sale as Markets Slump (Bloomberg)

Also of Interest:

• Hong Kong Correction
  Asia Week Sales in Hong Kong Have Substantial Unsold Lots; But Record Prices Are Still Set for Many Contemporary Asian...
  
• Sotheby’s Waits it Out in Hong Kong
  Asia has been the hope and the fear of the worldwide art market. During the depths of the October lows,...
  
• Sotheby’s Teases November Sale
  Sotheby’s stock price continues to climb as the stock market rebounds. Already twice the price of the March lows, the...
  
• Asian Art Gets Defensive
  Bloomberg covers London’s Asian art sales: Sotheby’s was one of three auction houses and nearly 50 commercial galleries offering works...
  
• ArtPrice v. Christie’s
  Artprice, the French art information service, released a long and convoluted press release today with a headline–”Artprice: Christie’s Makes Another...