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The Press is Taking Stock of the Contemporary Sales

Sotheby’s

From the report of the Master, Judd Tully:

“I think the market is continuing its onward march, blissfully ignorant of all the turmoil in the financial markets,” said New York private dealer Christopher Eykyn. “It certainly hasn’t been a bad investment so far.” Read the rest of this entry »

First Night of Sales at Phillips de Pury Brings in $50 million

Evening Sale Well Below Low Estimate

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Is London the new center of the Contemporary Art trade?

Two important themes of the last 18 months in the art market have been the continuing strength of Contemporary art and the growth of London as the fulcrum of the new art-market dynamic. The chart above shows the ever-increasing cycle of London sales of Contemporary art. First, it was simply Christie’s and Sotheby’s, now Phillips is adding important totals. But these impressive numbers are not the only story. (More charts after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Disappointing 20thC Design Sales Bring in Just Shy of $18 million

All three auction houses held their 20th Century Design sales through the weekend. The results weren’t thrilling but they did validate Murray Moss’s prediction: “Prices continue to rise dramatically for great work, and to fall for what is deemed mediocre,” he said. “In short, the market is becoming more extreme - like the society that supports it.” His comments come from Alice Rawsthorn’s overview of the ‘design-art’ market published two weeks ago in the International Herald Tribune and a touch more recently in the NY Times. (Detailed results after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Elizabeth Peyton’s prices have been up and down but a strong show and a strong showing at auction suggest her market is back on form.

New York Magazine liked Elizabeth Peyton’s recent show at Gavin Brown. The market liked all three works that came up. Each house had one.

Christie’s had the most expensive with Kurt Cobain, estimated at between $700k and $1 million, which sold for $769,000.

Phillips de Pury had the one that sold the best: John Squires, estimated at between $200k and $300k, went for $421k–well above the high estimate.

And Sotheby’s had a little of both with Jarvis (Dancing), estimated at between $400k and $600k but selling for $741,000.

Artnet’s magazine rounds up the top lots at Christie’s American paintings sale, reports on the prints at Phillips and details the failed Neutra sale.

Artnet magazine makes this interesting observation from the Phillips prints sale

The passing of the great Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg was clearly felt at the sale, as his emblematic 1970 screenprint of iconic images from the 1960s — JFK, RFK, MLK, Janis Joplin, Vietnam — sold for $27,400, well above its presale high estimate, itself set at a healthy $18,000. The price is a new high for this print.

Could this be such an immediate cause and effect?

Artnet also reports that the Louis Kahn house failed to find a buyer. Then we are informed by The New York Times that the Neutra house sale from Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening sale has come undone. The house is still standing but the buyer has been vaporized, much like the effect of the neutron bomb of the 1980s. For those who were at the sale, switching auctioneers and providing disclosures only slowed down the rhythm of the otherwise strong sale. The New York Times has much in the way of details explaining why the buyer was rejected.

The Economist piles on top of the art-market-must-crash scrum with more of the same chicken little analysis. (NB: No one has a brief for the art market’s health but until we read something interesting, we would prefer to look at real prices and selling patterns.) But someone has taken the time to write a long and thoughtful refutation of The Economist’s facts and reasoning:

“Both houses reported great successes in their day sales for individual lots and in general. The great works will always do well, the shift that seems to be ahead, is that works that should have never been traded in the first place will slowly fall out of the overflowing sales catalogues. Not a bad thing!”

It seems that the financial markets are slow to develop faith in the art market, meanwhile the fund and asset managers fuel it.

The best sale in Sotheby’s history, the evening sale of May 14th set records for 17 of the 54 artists represented at auction. I believe that figure alone accounts for the success and advances in the breadth and depth of the market.

This article seems to ignore the very claims it makes.”

Street Signs

TheStreet.com made it’s name as stockpicking site. Now Lauren Tara LaCapra is peddling advice about the art market. Nothing of any particular interest here except Michael Moses suggesting historical patterns leave room for a further 20% rise in the art market. Twenty percent of what, isn’t made clear.

Also, beware the new meme–quoted here–from Art Tactic that uses selling prices in relation to estimates as a measure of the art market’s health: “more than half of the lots sold in the contemporary evening sales sold below the average estimate.”

It isn’t clear what that information tells you when sellers have been getting estimates that begin at record prices. For those who were at the sales, did anyone notice that many works either didn’t have reserves or the reserves were very low? A number of lots sold for substantially lower than the low estimate? And, if that is a trend, what could it mean? Desperation? Or that buyers had made so much profit they were happy with any price?