Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Confidence Trick?

September 19, 2008 by Marion Maneker

What’s Going On with Art Tactic?

On September 2nd, Art Tactic issued a report on the Sotheby’s Hirst sale declaring the auction a crucial test of art market confidence. The report was clearly designed to garner attention for the firm. And it worked. With the press hungry for any item related to the audacious auction, Art Tactic’s report got widespread pick up. Art Tactic’s Anders Petterson should have been ecstatic. But lurking in much of Art Tactic’s analysis to reach the press of the last year and more has been an almost hopeful expectation that art prices were softening. One presumed Mr. Petterson was merely alive to the potential for a correction–the art market has been on a dramatic run for several years and most likely needs a correction to forward in an orderly way.

To further add to the drama, Petterson is very familiar with Hirst’s market performance. In 2004, he issued a report on the Pharmacy sale that predicted the artist was flooding his own market and would collapse prices. Again, logical analysis but Hirst–ever the iconclast–pulled off quite the opposite by exciting and accelerating his market. This time around, Petterson made a better call, anticipating a successful sale.

Now that the Beautiful Inside My Head Forever auction has performed in every way, does that mean the art market is on a bullish tear? Whether this is the result of the week’s turmoil in financial firms and markets or an investment in predicting gloom remains unclear, but in this Bloomberg story, Petterson all but recants his declaration that the Hirst sale would be a measure of art market confidence:

“The sale performed as expected, but a little more on the positive side,” said the report’s author, Anders Petterson. “Does this mean the contemporary-art market is saved? The sale was so specific that I’m not so sure now.”

For the record, our contention is that the Hirst sale is not a measure of anything beyond the market for works by Damien Hirst. The sale is too unique to be used as a guage in either direction.

Hirst Art Lures Russians; Crisis Saps US Demand, Dealers Say (Bloomberg)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • London Gives Some Second Thoughts About June SalesLondon Gives Some Second Thoughts About June Sales
  • Sotheby’s London Contemporary Evening = £118m ($144.5m)Sotheby’s London Contemporary Evening = £118m ($144.5m)
  • Sotheby’s Goes German in London Led by BaselitzSotheby’s Goes German in London Led by Baselitz
  • Market Stalwarts and Entrepreneurial Newcomers Show Off at Sotheby’sMarket Stalwarts and Entrepreneurial Newcomers Show Off at Sotheby’s
  • Richter Abstract Leads Sotheby’s London Contemporary SaleRichter Abstract Leads Sotheby’s London Contemporary Sale
  • Sotheby’s Frieze Day Sale = £11.9mSotheby’s Frieze Day Sale = £11.9m

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Contemporary, London, Sotheby's

About Marion Maneker

LiveArt

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor