The Art Newspaper‘s Brooks Mason and Georgina Adam sum up the fair’s sales action:
Many dealers had chosen to bring more modestly-priced works, in anticipation of constrained budgets.
“I made some strategic decisions in what I was bringing,” said Barbara Gladstone (E11)—and it paid off. She sold Anish Kapoor’s blue In Out, 2008, in the high six figures. London’s Lisson Gallery (E8) also reported selling a red fibreglass Kapoor (Untitled, 2008) for $1m. The Project (C21) sold Julie Mehretu’s huge How They Rise How They Fall, 2008, for $700,000 to a European foundation.
“We have made quite a few sales but generally under $100,000,” said Art Dealers Association of America president Roland Augustine of Luhring Augustine (F9), noting sales at prices between $6,000 for The Schumann Machine, 2008, a video work by the rising Icelandic star Ragnar Kjartansson, to $95,000 for Pipilotti Rist’s shelf-installation, Enlight My Space, 2008, bought by a private Swiss collector for $95,000.
Other dealers declared they had done better than predicted. “We were expecting a crash, but we got a soft landing,” said Xavier Hufkens (H13). “I was not going to buy anything this week, but as I walked from the back of the hall to my booth, I bought five pieces.”
Soft Landings in Hard Times (The Art Newspaper)
