Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn declares a blanket 30% drop in the price level at TEFAF:

“Tefaf is an Eldorado of billionaires,” said Paolo Vedovi, director of the Brussels-based Galerie Vedovi, specialists in modern and contemporary art. “You see people you don’t see at auctions. They want discounts.”

Established collectors who had dropped out of the contemporary-art market during the speculative boom of the last three years were returning, Vedovi said in an interview.

On the first night of the fair, he sold Fontana’s 1962 painting “Concetto Spaziale (noir),” for “a little bit less” than its asking price of 2.5 million euros. [ . . . ]

“We’ve tried to reduce prices from a year ago,” David Leiber, director of the New York-based gallery Sperone Westwater, said in an interview. “Sellers have got to be as creative as possible in this environment.”

He said the gallery sold works starting at $80,000 and leading up to $360,000, for a 1976 Warhol painting of the cocker spaniel that belonged to Peter Brant, a New York newsprint entrepreneur. The 4-foot-2-inch high polymer and silkscreen on canvas would have been priced $90,000 higher 12 months ago, said Leiber.

“I’ve reduced prices by up to 30 percent on last year,” said New York dealer Christophe Van de Weghe. “People want to get deals, it’s as simple as that.” He sold contemporary works with a total asking price of about 6 million euros.

Art-Fair Dealers Cut Prices 30 Percent as Buyers Seek Bargains (Bloomberg)