'The Whole System Has Changed'

Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn sums up the Contemporary art sales offering an interpretation that the art market has experienced a sea change with the auction houses cultivating a new global market that outreaches galleries:

“The whole system has changed,” the London-based dealer Alan Hobart said after seeing most of the lots at Sotheby’s and Christie’s fall to telephone bidders represented by lines of more than 50 employees.

“The auction houses know where the big clients are and they’re becoming more dominant,” said Hobart, who spent 6.3 million pounds on a sculpture and a painting by Alberto Giacometti. […]

“Russian and Chinese buyers tend to be interested in the top lots,” said [Jonathan P.] Binstock [,a New York-based senior art adviser at Citi Private Bank]. “It’s still primarily a European and American market, though that is changing. The art market is global for the auction houses. Galleries aren’t having the same international experience.”

Bacon, Warhol, New Buyers Boost Contemporary Auctions as Sales Surge 56% (Bloomberg)