The Miami Herald is getting a little extra excited about ArtBasel next week. They polled a few market watchers to ask about the recent upturn. Here’s what they got:
- Brett Gorvy, Christie’s: “That sense of negotiation that was present a year ago — where people wanted to buy art at 40-50 percent below the estimate — that’s gone,” he said after the Christie’s contemporary art auction in New York, which saw records broken and aggressive bidding.“In Miami, as long as dealers come with material that is fresh and interesting they should do quite well,” he said.
- Marc Spiegler: “The riskiest thing you can do is to play it safe,” Spiegler said. “The people who bring easy, domestic, inexpensive work won’t get the kind of attention from collectors and curators as those people who bring things that are really of the highest quality and highest rarity.”
- “In people’s minds they are putting money into tangible assets that will provide a hedge against inflation,” said Suzanne Gyorgy, the head of Citi Private Bank Art Advisory, which will be guiding collectors through the Art Basel throngs. “It’s not the driver that our clients lead with, but it is in people’s minds.”
Market Bouncing Back in Time for Art Basel Miami Beach (Miami Herald)