Christie’s Announces a Top-Shelf Basquiat

Lindsay Pollock on Bloomberg focuses on Lars Ullrich’s Basquiat, just announced for Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Sale on November 12th. Coming right in the teeth of a market storm, dealers and advisers see this work as still having the potential to set a record price.

Here’s what Pollock says:

Despite the global financial meltdown, dealers remain bullish on marquee artworks. “The very sliver at the top of the market will probably remain attractive to people as a better place to put their money than the stock market,” said Miami-based art adviser Lisa Austin. “Basquiat is solid gold. I expect the piece will get snapped up.”

Carol Vogel carries the same story in the New York Times. Vogel points out that Ullrich is taking the risk with his eyes wide open:

“Of course it’s an awkward time to sell, but I’ve always been about taking chances,” Mr. Ulrich said. “I have a lot of faith in the art market,” he added. “It’s perhaps the last frontier where the best of the best will not go the way of the rest of the economy.”

If Ullrich is right, the picture, Pollock points out, has the potential to set a new record for Basquiat:

Dealers said the painting may set a new record for the artist. “It has the potential to sell for $15 million to $20 million,” said dealer Christophe Van de Weghe, who specializes in Warhol and Basquiat. “This is a broad market. You have people who have been collecting art for 30 years and also the 20-year- old rich guy.”

Metallica Drummer Puts $12 Million `Boxer’ Basquiat Up for Sale (Bloomberg)

Inside Art: Metallica Drummer to Sell Basquiat ‘Boxer’ (New York Times)

Martin Gayford Profiles Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter isn’t known for giving interviews or sitting for profiles:

When I met him in his office-cum-studio space in central Cologne, Richter turned out to be far less taciturn than his reputation suggested. In person he is small, neatly dressed, self-deprecating and wry. It is hard to imagine anyone who behaves less like a famous artist, especially a cool avant-garde one. Read the rest of this entry »

PdP has a 23-ft. Tall Murakami Sculpture to Lead Their Frieze Sale

Takashi Murakami’s Tongari-kun (2003-2004), estimated at between £3.5-£4.5 million, is the star of Phillips de Pury’s Frieze sale that will take place on Saturday night, October 18th. The sale has strong works by Keith Haring, Donald Judd, Anselm Keifer and many others. Our particular favorite is the Joan Mitchell La Grande Vallée (1983). Mitchell’s works have hit a $5 million plateau and this is estimated right there at £2-£3 million.

Josh Baer reports that the Murakami is being sold without a guarantee, an increasingly common occurrence for the top lots. Why? Baer doesn’t give an answer but it may be because consignors are willing to take on more risk in exchange for a greater upside participation. Sotheby’s recent earnings have suggested that the house’s increasing restraint when using auction guarantees had cut into profits. For consignors that would mean selling without a guarantee represents a greater gain.

(We’ll have links to the catalogue once PdP gets it online.)

Everything You Wanted to Know About Contemporary Indian Art

. . . But Were Afraid to Ask!

The single best story to read on the boom in Indian art comes from Abu Dhabi’s The National. Click through to read the whole story. It’s worth the time. If you’re not convinced, here is a capsule version:

Bharti Kher [is] one of India’s rising art superstars. A year ago, the 39-year-old was part of a growing group of struggling artists whose work was virtually unknown outside of India. [ . . . ] As interest in Kher’s work balloons, so have prices. Misdemeanours, a piece of sculpture of a snarling hyena made from fibre glass, wood and fur that examines the shattered harmony between man and nature sold for $167,000 (Dh613,000) at an auction as Sotheby’s this summer. Another work, Missing, sold through the auction house for $210,900 (Dh774,600) in May, while An Absence of Assignable Cause – a giant heart of a blue whale cast in fibre glass and festooned in bindis – was snapped up by Charles Saatchi [ . . . ]

Although she’s lived in India since 1992 and her work is conspicuously from the subcontinent, Kher was born and raised in Britain. She arrived in Delhi and ended up marrying a small town boy from Bihar who had not long arrived in the Indian capital himself. His name is Subodh Gupta, the current king of Indian contemporary art, who was the first Indian installation artist to sell his work for more than $1 million (Dh3.67 million). [ . . . ] Kher and Gupta symbolise the breakthrough of Indian contemporary art onto the international scene as it rides the wave of the nation’s fast-growing economy. Works are reaching prices never previously seen – or imagined. In the last three years alone, Gupta’s prices at auction for an oil painting increased by 5,000 per cent, while modern Indian artists, such as the 82-year-old Tyeb Mehta, who has lived a lifetime of financial struggle, have seen their paintings suddenly fetch more than a million dollars. [ . . . ]

(The best stuff, after the jump.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Where Does Subodh Gupta’s Market Go from Here?

In the month of September, more than $6 million worth of Gupta’s works were sold. If that weren’t enough, the artist’s top 17 prices were all achieved within the last six months.

If you were worried that you might have missed your chance to own a Gupta, don’t fret. The feeding frenzy isn’t over. In Hong Kong next week, Sotheby’s is selling this untitled painting which is similar to this untitled painting that made $962,500 recently in New York.

But the real fireworks are going to come during the Frieze sales in London when this pots-and-pans picture, Idol Thief, estimated at between £600-£800,000, goes on sale at Christie’s. The auction house got $1.166 milion for Steal 2 just a few weeks ago during New York’s Asia Week. This untitled pots-and-pans painting at Sotheby’s at the Frieze sale is estimated a little lower at between £300-£500,000. Cow, estimated at between £250-£350,000, follows the $866,500 sale of One Cow . The wall piece, Curry 2, carries a £250-£350,000 estimate too. But Miter, a corner piece, just sold at Christie’s for $1 million.

Sotheby’s Contemporary Indian Art expert, Zara Porter Hill talks about the works by Indian artists offered in Hong Kong next week. Her comments appear in India’s Economic Times:

“This is a market that has seen rapid growth in recent years and we feel that this is the perfect time to introduce Indian artists to our contemporary Asian art sale there. [ . . . ] Gupta’s work is one of the most important works by him to ever come to the auction market,” Zara Porter-Hill, director and head of Indian art at Sotheby’s, said in a press statement issued from Britain.

Galleries ask: “Will You Love Me Forever?”

The Master, Judd Tully, goes over the ground of gallery re-sale agreements in Art + Auction. Christie’s Amy Cappellazzo recently referred to re-sale agreements as “love letters” from collectors to dealers and artists. Tully’s article opens with the story of a Murakami withdrawn from a sale because it violated the artist’s re-sale agreement. Tully gives all sides of the story but, in the end, it appears that most of the issue gets worked out in the marketplace one way or another. What the article doesn’t say is that the art market may finally be moving to a greater acceptance of transactions as part of the life of a work of art–not unlike a museum show or a retrospective. Of course, that would require dealers to be more accepting of the idea that an artist’s value might fluctuate over time.

Tully also tells the story of art advisor Todd Levin’s experience with galleries who had a re-sale agreement:

Some buyers, however, find such terms onerous. Todd Levin, of the New York–based Levin Art Group and the longtime curator of the Adam Sender collection, says that certain gallerists seem to believe that the resale of primary artwork for any reason is gross negligence. [ . . . ] Levin made his somewhat satirical comment after describing the aftermath of the November 2006 sale by Sender of a group of guaranteed works at Phillips de Pury & Company that caused considerable consternation in the art world. As one well-connected adviser put it, “Sender was given priority because the dealers believed he was a true collector, and now he’s viewed as a speculator and a seller.”

In the collector’s defense, Levin says he personally called every dealer whose artists’ works were going up at auction, giving them the heads-up required in the resale agreements and even offering a 10 percent discount—the same markdown Sender had received from the galleries—on the prices Phillips had guaranteed. Only one dealer, whom Levin didn’t identify, decided to buy back a work before the auction; the rest exercised their option not to.

One of the works, Richard Prince’s Tender Nurse, 2002, made $2,256,000. Sender had bought it at a 2003 exhibition at Barbara Gladstone, where the prices ranged from $40,000 to $95,000.

So the question–that may be answered in the coming years–will be whether exchange is good or bad for an artist’s ultimate value.

Wrangling Over Resales (ArtInfo)

Godfrey Barker on the Hirst Sale Results

Newsweek has a brief item on the Hirst results:

But is Hirst’s work really recession proof—especially given the susceptibility of his pieces to decomposition? “This sale has proved that Hirst is a safe return,” says art-market expert Godfrey Barker. “The superrich need somewhere to put their money, and they’re pouring it into art. We are entering a world where art is trusted above real estate and General Motors.” Along those lines, Hirst plans to invest his new millions in modern masters like Francis Bacon—though it might not hurt to hang on to a few of his own commodity-encrusted creations, too.

The Scotsman Goes to the Hirst Auction with Sarah Thornton

The subhed on this Scotsman story about attending the Hirst sale with art market author, Sarah Thorton, gives you fair warning: “Sarah Thornton cut her academic teeth in Glasgow and sank them deep into the booming contemporary art market. She bares her fangs for Jackie McGlone.” Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World comes out in November. Until then:

In the end, the most talked about art auction of recent times doesn’t quite live up to the hype, but Thornton is very good company. “Who’s bidding on the phone with that Sotheby’s employee who I happen to know speaks Russian?” she whispers as we sit among the hack pack observing proceedings. [ . . . ] Roman Abramovich perhaps? “That was exactly my thought,” responds Thornton. “But I know Molly Dent-Brocklehurst, who used to work for the Gagosian Galleries, always bids for him. It’s definitely another Russian oligarch. I’ve a few ideas who it is – I’ll find out his name eventually.” Read the rest of this entry »

Victor Pinchuk’s Museum Moves Closer to Becoming Reality

John Varoli reports in Bloomberg on the Ukrainian art magnate, Victor Pinchuk, and his announcement of the hiring of a new director for his museum with this Hirst-related tease:

“Over the past year, I’ve acquired works by my favorite artists,” said Pinchuk in his downtown Kiev home. “I bought Gursky, Koons, Murakami, Hirst, and Kiefer. Yes, I bought at the recent Hirst auction, but I won’t name works. You must wait until spring when I’ll display new acquisitions.” [ . . . ]

Pinchuk spoke in an interview as he named Eckhard Schneider director of his Kiev art center. The Ukrainian’s collection includes some of the most expensive living artists: Hirst, Jeff Koons and German photographer Andreas Gursky.

“Victor Pinchuk is having a great impact on the market,” said Simon de Pury, chairman of the auction house Phillips de Pury & Co., at the opening of a Gursky show at the center. “Ever since he opened the center, others in Ukraine and Russia have emulated him and taken an interest in contemporary art.” [ . . . ] “The contemporary art market in both Ukraine and Russia has really taken off in the past two years, and I expect this growth to continue,” De Pury of Phillips said.

London’s Evening Standard blog, This is London, cranks up the hype with its own version of this same story, complete with identical quotes.

Billionaire Pinchuk Buys Hirst Works; Names New Museum Director (Bloomberg)

Secret Hirst Buyer is Ukrainian Steel Tycoon (This is London)

The Frieze Art Fair Auctions Are Bigger Than Ever

Scott Reyburn has a preview of the Frieze auctions, at least, Christie’s Frieze auction which features a Fontana Fine di Dio, this one in black, estimated at £12 million. A Pepto-pink Fine di Dio failed to sell for £8 million in London in June. But a gold one went for a record £10.3 million in February.

Call this the year of the egg:

[Philippe] Segalot said that black was not necessarily an uncommercial color for a “Fine di Dio” canvas. “There are no rules when it comes to Fontana’s colors, at least as far as I’m concerned. Composition is equally important,” he said. “Black and white are the ultimate colors for the `Fine di Dio,”’ said Ordovas. “The canvas isn’t just black, it’s glittery which gives an incredible spatial quality to it.”

Over at Sotheby’s the emphasis is on Gerhard Richter. Two Richters, two Warhols, a Basquiat and Hirst medicine cabinet are the top lots at Sotheby’s. Jerusalem is a Richter landscape that’s estimated at £5 to £7 million. This red Abstraktes Bild–a hot run of these paintings has been taking place this year too. The Warhols are a set of skulls estimated at £5 to £7 million and Gold double Mona Lisa estimated at £1 to £1.5 million.

Beneath the Fontana in price at Christie’s is couple of Richters too. Claudius, estimated at £6 million.Reyburn has Rachofsky evaluating it as, `fabulous painting at a fair price.” Kerzenschein, the other Richter, is estimated in the £2 ot £3 million range. Christie’s has a Warhol Double Marilyn, at  £4.5 to £6.5 million, and Richard Prince’s  Dude Ranch Nurse #2, estimated at between £2.8 and £3.2 million. Aside from the Bacon and several Freuds, there’s a de Kooning and a Doig. The de Kooning, estimated at between £2.5 to £3.5 million, is from 1986 and follows the £3.5 million sale of a 1986 canvas at Phillips de Pury in June.

For an overview of the Contemporary art sales in London over the last few years, see This Is London.

“October will become just as important, if not even more important, than February and June in London,” said Pilar Ordovas, Christie’s head of contemporary art in London. “There are more international collectors in London during Frieze week than at any other time of year.” Ordovas called the selection “the most comprehensive and valuable” autumn sale to date.

“The sellers don’t have to be concerned, it’s the buyers who have to be,” Dallas collector Howard Rachofsky said in a telephone interview. “Collectors are looking at these auctions on a piece-by-piece basis. If there’s something rare and exceptional people will step up, but if it’s just another example they’ll pass.”

Rachofsky said that the market for works by less established artists in the 300,000-pound to 1 million-pound range “could get a little soft.”

If the market makes you crazy, there’s still more to be seen and done in London. Kate Taylor’s NY Sun piece focuses on the alternatives.

Fontana Work May Fetch $21.8 Million in Record Christie’s Sale (Bloomberg)

Warming Up for Frieze (NY Sun)