Three Dealers Go on the Record in Advance of the Hirst Auction

Bloomberg has three comments on the upcoming auction. White Cube’s Jay Jopling denies there is a mountain of unsold works:

“The appetite for Damien’s art,” Jay Jopling, White Cube’s owner, said in the statement, “is such that we never have enough and I’m always keen to have as much work on consignment as possible.” The market for Hirst was strong and suggestions to the contrary were based on “redundant documents.”

Robert Sandelson suggests Hirst is making an end run around his galleries:

“Sotheby’s auction is payback time for Damien,” said London dealer Robert Sandelson, who in the summer of 2006 hosted a selling exhibition of Hirst works acquired through secondary sources. “He’s saying to the dealers, `If you can’t sell these pieces, I’ll find someone who can,”’ said Sandelson in an interview.

But Kenny Schachter thinks everybody will benefit from the sale:

“Any revelations about unsold works shouldn’t affect the auction,” said the London-based dealer Kenny Schachter, who was on the guest-list for Sotheby’s preview at the Hamptons. “Hirst and Sotheby’s are looking for new collectors for this material. In the end it could help sell some of the dealers’ inventory — if it goes well.”

Hirst’s Dealer Denies `Mountain’ of Unsold Works Before Auction (Bloomberg)

Many years ago in the United States, a wealthy magazine publisher with a famous name decided to run for president. And though he had a distinctive political/economic point of view, many observers felt the presidential run was nothing more than a form of advertising. The media exposure the publisher received which promoted his magazine because it shared his last name, was invaluable. That lesson keeps returning as the Damien Hirst auction approaches. Whatever the outcome of the sale, Hirst has continued to imprint himself on the broader public as the most famous living artist.

In India, the press is alive with reports of Sothebys decision to display 24 lots from the sale in New Delhi. The tone of the coverage ranges from flattered to triumphant. Rightfully, the Indian press sees the marketing effort as a validation of the country’s growing wealth and international sophistication. Here’s Sify picking up from a story in the Financial Times:

Sotheby’s said the number of Indian buyers at its auctions had doubled between 2004 and the end of last year, and that about one third of those buyers were new to the auction house. Fourteen works of Hirst will go on display in Delhi to attract new buyers from the Indian sub-continent.

Oliver Barker, senior international specialist in contemporary art at Sotheby’s, described the move as an “educational experience” for the auction house.

(. . . )

“Collectors in India are very much trying to find ways into western art,” said Barker in the Financial Times. “In many ways, this is the most important exhibition by a non-Indian artist (Hirst) to be held in India.”

Barker has some other interesting observations in Thaindian.com:

“We hope the exhibition will generate interest among Indian buyers to participate in the London auction because there has been a lot of activity in the contemporary art collecting segment in developing nations worldwide. Indians have now started buying western art,” Barker said.

(. . . )

“He has never run afoul of the animal rights lobby, though there have been questions raised. He ensures that his dead animals are sourced ethically,” Barker said.

From yet another Indian site, DNA:

Hirst—a Turner Prize winner—is a household name in his home country and in the West, but now auction houses would like it to be well known in India too. The reason: Indians have become big buyers of art thanks to their buoyant economy.

(. . .)

In fact, Sotheby’s is expecting that most of the buyers for their ‘Hirst Mountain’ will be from India, Russia and the Gulf.

Indian masters like MF Husain, Raza and Souza have been breaking the million-dollar ceiling for some time now, and experts believe that Indian and NRI buyers are now ready to expand their horizons.

“If Hirst can sell to Indian art lovers then other non-Indian artists can also try their luck,” said an art critic.

Finally, word comes today from many sources, but Bloomberg has the best piece, that the platinum and diamond skull, “For the Love of God,” will go on a world tour commencing with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Starting November 1, and running through to December 15, the sculpture will be surrounded by other Dutch works that depict Memento Mori. This should re-assure some skeptics who thought the work might have been broken up for value of the stones. It is owned by a consortium including the artist himself.

Still more Hirst news today: Hirst will open two retail stores in London–one next door to Sotheby’s. Hirst signed a 10-year lease. Bloomberg has the news.

Interview with Guy Bennett

In our continuing effort to de-mystify the art market and make the auction houses more accessible, we bring you this interview with Christie’s Guy Bennett (along with some video excerpts.)

First, a little background. Guy Bennett is Senior Vice President, International Co-Head of Impressionist and Modern Art. In addition to overseeing the day to day running of the department worldwide, he is responsible for the daily management, marketing and promotion of Christie’s sales of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York. And, of course, it’s his job to find the right properties to sell at the right time. He headed the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in November 2006 which totaled $491.5 million, making it the most valuable auction ever. The next year, he organized the second most valuable sale totaling $396 million in November 2007.

In 2008, Bennett landed the Miller Collection, which included Monet’s spectacular “Le bassin aux nymphéas” which sold for $80.4 million in London in June, doubling the artist’s previous record set a month earlier when Bennett had orchestrated the sale of Monet’s “Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil” in New York which sold for $41.5 million. (The interview, with video, after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

The Wall Street Journal has this think piece on the meaning the Hirst auction for the art market. And The Art Newspaper claims to have an inventory of White Cube’s unsold stock totaling £100 million.

Melik Kaylan’s tart views in the WSJ spare no one. Dealers are haughty but also panderers; Hirst is creature of the vulgar new money being made in Russia, China and the Gulf States; and art is for social climbers.

Because Sotheby’s and Christie’s appear to operate a species of global commodities exchange, with dates and prices instantly disclosed on the Internet, it all feels so much more transparent to, say, a new Chinese millionaire. In the first place, there will be a local office near him co-headed by a Chinese speaker who understands the millionaire’s social sensitivities — so much more pleasant than having to kow-tow to a self-important New York or London gallerist. It puts an end to a long era in which superior dealers could treat outsider clients with the snooty hauteur of a French waiter. Above all, though, the auction houses’ relative transparency — the fact that prices are set and transactions occur out in the open, for all to see — will appeal to the international new money crowd that knows plenty about how money and markets work.

Dealers have always offered clients a higher degree of discretion than the public space of an auction ever can. That has traditionally been their great asset. But let’s be candid: Nobody in Dubai or Shanghai wants a pickled cow to gaze at musingly in solitude for the sheer beauty of its hindquarters. When today’s clients buy such wares, privacy is the last thing on their minds.

The important question is whether the Hirst sale is truly driven by new buyers seeking access to his work that can’t be satisfied by his dealers. Sotheby’s is sending the works to New York (well, the Hamptons) and New Delhi but not to Dubai or Shanghai. But The Art Newspaper turns the equation around by suggesting that Hirst’s volume of production has overflowed what his dealers can place:

the scale of his output requires him to find a steady stream of new buyers; the global reach of the auction house will have proved decisive. “Sotheby’s promotion is not directed at existing collectors. They are targeting new buyers, especially in parts of the world which have only recently started collecting contemporary art,” says a trade source

The Times also picks up the Art Newspaper’s claims and wraps up the whole package including the shows in Bridgehampton and New Delhi:

This will be Hirst’s first show in India. “Until now Indian collectors have primarily shown interest in art from their own culture,” said Oliver Barker, senior international specialist at Sotheby’s. “Now they are thinking global.”

Hirst’s Marketing End Run (Wall Street Journal)

Revealed: the Art Damien Hirst Failed to Sell (The Art Newspaper)

200 Unsold Hirst Works Looking for An Owner at Sotheby’s (The Times of London)

Was Turner the Hirst of his day?

And Why Do They Make It Sound Like That’s A Bad Thing?

Adam Kirsch and Peter Schjeldahl don’t agree on the merit of Turner’s work but they do seem to agree on one thing: comparing J.M.W. Turner to Damien Hirst is an unqualified slam. Here’s Schjeldahl’s pithy put down: Read the rest of this entry »

Felix Salmon passes judgment on Seven Days in the Art World

We generally don’t agree with Felix Salmon’s rote assumption that Contemporary art is a bubble. But there are two good reasons to start to worry: Greed and the Magazine cover signal. Two old saws about markets seem to be coming together this Fall. The first is the idea that magazine covers (or, in this case, a book) are the signal of a top. When a subject appears on a magazine cover, it’s not news to anyone anymore. Does Thornton’s book signal the top for Contemporary Art? (Video after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

The US Embassy in Beijing Highlights Jeff Koons’s Art

This Jeff Koons sculpture sits in front of the new US Embassy in Beijing that opened today. The choice of Koons as a symbol of America in the country with the most consequence in coming years is implicit recognition of the artist’s stature in world culture–not just the art market. Here the New York Sun profiles the building itself. The Art Newspaper gives more details on the rest of the art in the building. But Felix Salmon at Portfolio points out that the art budget was measley in comparison to accepted guidelines for public art. And New York’s redoubtable Jerry Saltz offers valuable discussion of the artist and his work capping off with this observation: Read the rest of this entry »

Why Does this Ukrainian Strong Man Love Art So Much?

This is Victor Pinchuk looking sophisticated in a James Hill photograph taken for the New York Times. The picture comes from Landon Thomas Jr.’s profile of Pinchuk that runs in today’s business section. The art world tends to view the Oligarchs as simply rich men with money to spend on art. But Thomas shows how their new-found love of art is part of a larger campaign and strategy that seeks not only legitimacy for themselves and their fortunes but also for their own country’s cultural status in the globalized world. You can see in this one quote how the international art world is stand-in for global culture and significant enough to stand on an equal footing with Ukrainian political support and US backing: 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 »

The Lauffs Collection May Have Been Sotheby’s Secret Weapon But the Contemporary Sale Created a Sense of Awe in the Market

Sotheby’s 94.7 ($188) million pound sale of Contemporary art surprised the market with its nearly 95% sell-through rate. Only four lots were bought in, though one was a pricey Bacon. And despite the success of the Bacon study of George Dyer and the record price for a Prince Nurse painting–even as the London critiques roundly pan his Serpentine Gallery show–the real success of the sale was the broad base of the selling. The top ten lots only accounted for about 47% of the total sale (at Christie’s the night before it was 70%.) Read the rest of this entry »