Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

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

The Art Asset Paradox—or, Why Leon Black Paid So Much for Krugier’s Picasso

February 17, 2014 by Marion Maneker

Picasso, Minotaure 10.3m GBP

Scott Reyburn debuts in the International New York Times with his recap of the London sales. His overall take on the fortnight frenzy is that there’s a new group of global buyers acquiring art as short-term assets. He cites Pierre Chen and David Martinez as figures at the top of the trend, sophisticated financial players who have been happily buying and selling with shorter (though still multi-year) time horizons.

Reyburn makes this observation that is key to the odd nature of art as an asset, namely that premium prices are paid for art works that have been validated for non-financial reasons. In the process he reveals that buyer of the Krugier/Marina Picasso Minotaure:

Paradoxically, for all the talk of art gaining credibility as an asset class, buyers still place an almost nostalgic premium on works that emerge from “connoisseurial” collections. Sotheby’s Feb. 5-6 auction of 119 drawings from the private collection of the Swiss dealer Jan Krugier, who died in 2008, was a complete sell-out, raising 74.8 million pounds.

Picasso’s 1936 hallucinatory “Composition (Composition au Minotaure),” was among the many 19th- and 20th-century drawings that attracted at least half a dozen bidders.

Sourced directly from Marina Picasso, the artist’s granddaughter, it topped the sale with a price of £10.4 million, an auction record for a Picasso work on paper. The telephone buyer was identified by dealers as the New York collector Leon Black.

Key to the success of the sale were perceptions that Krugier had acquired the drawings for his own personal pleasure, rather than profit, over the course of 40 years.

For the Love of Art, and Money (NYTimes)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • ArtFinder.com Enters the RaceArtFinder.com Enters the Race
  • Maxwell Anderson to DallasMaxwell Anderson to Dallas
  • Artelligence for November 21, 2017Artelligence for November 21, 2017
  • Commissioned Art's Funding CrisisCommissioned Art's Funding Crisis
  • How Pictures Get LostHow Pictures Get Lost
  • South African Art v. GoldSouth African Art v. Gold

Filed Under: Collectors

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
  • Restituted Van Gogh Portrait from London Collection to Sell at Christie’s
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • 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
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Christie’s to Sell Its First Fully Digital Work of Art in Test of Emerging Market
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • Podcast
  • 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