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 »

No, That’s Not a Law Firm.

Those are the Names that Carried the Christie’s Sale.

Christie’s Contemporary sale totals $171 million. Half of that figure came from four paintings by Bacon, Freud and Koons and $25 million Koons sculpture. The top ten lots account for 70% of the total sale value. Beneath the headlines, the big news was the record set for a Gilbert and George work: $3.7 million for To Her Majesty. Eight other record prices were set. One for a Jeff Koons painting and more significantly, $2.5 million for a Sayed Haider Raza picture as well as records for Yan-Pei Ming, Nicolas de Stael, Michael Andrews and Antonio Lopez.

By lot, the buying was 48% American, 42% European (including UK), 8% Asian and 2% from other regions.

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale in Paris brings in $32 million

Clocking in at 20.384 million Euros, with 85% of the 179 lots sold, here’s the Top Ten from Monday night’s sale:

Prix (€) Estimation (€)

Artist, Title, Date

4,624,250 € ($7,267,934) 2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Francis Bacon, Sans titre (Pope), 1957-1959,
3,840,250 € ($6,035,721) 2,200,000 - 3,200,000
Joan Mitchell, La Ligne de la rupture, 1970-71
1,992,250 € ($3,131,219 $) 700,000 - 900,000
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sans titre, circa 1983
1,824,250 € ($2,867,174) 500,000 - 700,000
Robert Rauschenberg, Parliament (Borealis), 1991
1,152,250 € (1,810,991 $) 700,000 - 1,000,000
Georges Mathieu, L’abduction d’Henri IV par l’archevêque Anno de Cologne, 1958
** RECORD MONDIAL POUR L’ARTISTE**
973,050 € ($1,529,343) 700,000 - 900,000
Pierre Soulages, Peinture, 20 juin 1957
816,250 € ($1,282,900) 400,000 - 600,000
Jean-Paul Riopelle, Sans titre, 1950-51
581,050 € (913,236) 220,000 - 320,000
Niki de Saint-Phalle (1930-2002), La machine à rêver, 1970
420,250 € ($660,507) 200,000 - 300,000
Jean Dubuffet, Chevalier de Sainte Hourloupe, 1972
372,250 € ($585,065) 220,000 - 280,000
Maurice Estève, Faverdines, 1955

What do you do when you’ve sold the most expensive work by a Contemporary artist? You find another one to sell.

Only in today’s art market would a $16 million painting be seen as an after thought. But big sales are meant to re-structure the entire market for an artist’s work. Sotheby’s recent success with Bacon–not just the $86 million record price but the whole run up of $50 million records and strong prices for works like the $33 million self-portrait (said to have been bought by Damien Hirst)–continues to bring out more pictures. Christie’s has certainly shared in this bounty but Sotheby’s has been much more aggressive in making a market for Bacon’s work.

Thus we get immediate news of another Bacon to be sold at the next round of Contemporary auctions. A portrait of George Dyer, one of the more sought after subjects by the painter will be offered in Sotheby’s July 1 sale in London. The painting is estimated in excess of $16 million.

The New York Times wants you to know that “When an artist’s works begin fetching astronomical prices, other works by him or her will almost inevitably, and immediately, come to auction.” Which is true but the Triptych sold in New York last week represents the crescendo in that process, not the prelude. In 2007, $267 million worth of Bacon paintings were sold in the evening auctions; so far in 2008, that number is $167 million but half the value came from one work.

There’s a new type of collector emerging at the highest end of the art market. This collector wants to own the very best and begins buying at the very top. The Art Newspaper thinks Roman Abramovich is one of these collectors. They’re reporting that he bought both the Bacon Triptych at Sotheby’s and Lucian Freud’s record-setting canvas at Christie’s. Nice trick. Whether this is true–or it makes sense to buy the two most expensive works rather than the two “best” works–is another question. We do know that other pictures at the top of the sale, were bought by “new” collectors who own very few works.