Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

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

Art Basel Sales Strategies: Sell In Advance, Seed the Market or Roll the Dice

June 23, 2014 by Marion Maneker

Donald Moffett

Scott Reyburn focuses on the ways in which dealers generate interest and protect their costs by pre-selling works that will be at a prestigious fair like the recently completed ArtBasel. There’s no single way to do this. Some dealers seem to have mounted booths with works that were already sold before they were uncrated. Some have suggested that Urs Fischer’s work at Sadie Coles was all-but-invoiced before the fair even opened.

Others seem to have a hybrid strategy of covering their costs and seeding interest by selling early, accepting advanced holds and still having a few works on hand to mop up the interest that has been generated:

The New York dealer Marianne Boesky typified the new dynamic in operation at Art Basel. She brought six new paintings by Donald Moffett, one of her gallery’s most sought-after artists, priced at $40,000 to $50,000 each. Two were bought by an American collector just before the fair; two were reserved and became confirmed sales when the clients visited the booth; the remainder were still available at the time of writing.

A Shadow Market at Art Basel  (NYTimes.com)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Why Are Picasso Ceramics So Cheap? Or Are They?Why Are Picasso Ceramics So Cheap? Or Are They?
  • Collecting Information on CollectorsCollecting Information on Collectors
  • Murakami Animation to LAMurakami Animation to LA
  • Sotheby’s Shows Signs of Getting More Aggressive on Auction and Third Party GuaranteesSotheby’s Shows Signs of Getting More Aggressive on Auction and Third Party Guarantees
  • The Real Debate About the Art MarketThe Real Debate About the Art Market
  • Hammons Flag at PhillipsHammons Flag at Phillips

Filed Under: Dealers

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
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • $10 M. Picasso Portrait Unseen for Decades to Sell at Bonhams
  • David Bowie Talks About Art (with Julian Schnabel)
  • Sotheby's Pulls in a $9m David Hockney for November
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Lost Lempicka Discovered at Sotheby's
  • Vienna Secession Painting, Long Thought to Be Lost, Sets a Record at Auction
  • 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