Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

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

Speculation Lives!

July 1, 2009 by Marion Maneker

[intro]Christie’s Dolman Says Speculators Pay in Cash[/intro]

Godfrey Barker, the curmudgeonly London critic for The Evening Standard, asks the pertinent question in the wake of Contemporary art’s surprising strength. Are the strong prices for Doig and the relatively strong prices for Hirst and Prince who still have buyers, let alone Koons and Warhol, signs of continuing speculation in Contemporary art?

Was it speculation? Many buyers see the 50-year-old Doig as the successor to Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Francis Bacon at the high-priced end of contemporary British painting and thus a sure bet.

“Speculation is alive and well,” said Ed Dolman, Christie’s chief executive. “But in 2009 speculators pay in cash. They are not borrowing to buy. This market is liquid.”

Those who looked on Damien Hirst as a speculators’ bubble certain to burst were surprised when four spot, spin and butterfly pictures at the two auction houses sold at prices up to £657,250.

Hirst’s £111million bonanza at Sotheby’s last September marked the peak of the 2008 contemporary art market and buyers predicted that Hirst prices had only one way to go: down. Instead, Teflon-coated Damien carries on.

Art Buyers Put Their Money on Doig as the Next Hockney (This Is London)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Getting a Guercino Its Bona Fides at PrincetonGetting a Guercino Its Bona Fides at Princeton
  • Motherwell Drawings Find BuyersMotherwell Drawings Find Buyers
  • Asian Buyers Take Aim at Works on PaperAsian Buyers Take Aim at Works on Paper
  • The Boastful Forger
  • Can Zeitz Collection Vault African Art onto World Stage?Can Zeitz Collection Vault African Art onto World Stage?
  • Droite de Suite Bill Introduced in CongressDroite de Suite Bill Introduced in Congress

Filed Under: General

About Marion Maneker

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

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • British Modernists Draw Deep Bidding in Christie's $42 M. London Sales
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • $10 M. Picasso Portrait Unseen for Decades to Sell at Bonhams
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Miami Sales Report 2015
  • David Bowie Talks About Art (with Julian Schnabel)
  • The Billion-Dollar NYC Apartment of Ben Heller
  • 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