Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

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

Flipped to Posterity, A Cézanne Tests the Market’s Ability to Value History & Taste

January 12, 2015 by Marion Maneker

Cezanne, Vue sur L'Estaque et le Château d'If (8-12m GBP)

Scott Reyburn’s weekend column in the International New York Times is tour de force. The ostensible subject is the relative decline demand for great Post-Impressionist and Modern works compared to the demand for postwar works.

But Reyburn adds this little reminder that little changes in the world of art market speculation and some much-flipped artists end up lasting and gaining even more in value:

“Vue sur l’Estaque et le Château d’If” is likely to have been one of the paintings the Paris dealer Ambroise Vollard acquired when, like some earlier version of Charles Saatchi or Stefan Simchowitz, he bought the entire contents of Cézanne’s studio in 1897.

The historian Gerald Reitlinger describes Cézanne in his 1961 masterwork “The Economics of Taste” as “the greatest artistic speculation of the century.” Reitlinger records how an 1877 still life bought at auction for £760 in 1907 — the year of the seismically influential Cézanne memorial exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in Paris — was “flipped” for a tidy £2,180 in 1913.

Reyburn gives the last word to art advisor Todd Levin:

“The critics are out of the game,” said the New York art adviser Todd Levin. “These days it’s dealers and collectors who build value, and artistic value has become conflated with price. That’s the problem.”

Levin’s right about that being a problem. But there is a simple solution to the question of which works by which artists will ultimately have lasting value: time.

Auction of a Cézanne Highlights New Realities  (NYTimes.com)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • A New Collector Buys BigA New Collector Buys Big
  • Auction Houses Market Old Masters to Contemporary Collectors, Dealers ScoffAuction Houses Market Old Masters to Contemporary Collectors, Dealers Scoff
  • Randolph Gets $300k CompensationRandolph Gets $300k Compensation
  • Forcing Freud to Acknowledge His Early WorkForcing Freud to Acknowledge His Early Work
  • Richter’s Eisberg Estimated at £8-12m Leads Sotheby’s London SaleRichter’s Eisberg Estimated at £8-12m Leads Sotheby’s London Sale
  • New Yorkers Don't Rank Among Art CollectorsNew Yorkers Don't Rank Among Art Collectors

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

  • Gorky, Kandinsky Works to Make First Public Appearance Since 1970s at Sotheby's
  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Soulages First Owned by Senegalese Poet-Politician Léopold Sédar Senghor Sells in France
  • Calder, Miró, Léger and More Expected to Fetch $22 M. in Christie's London 20th Century Art Sales
  • After Pandemic’s Rapid Change, Sotheby’s Has 8 Predictions for 2021
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • For 2020, Phillips Brought in Total of $760.4 million, Down 16 Percent from 2019; Asia Sales Up 24 Percent
  • A Season of Resilience: Fall 2020 Hong Kong Auction Analysis
  • 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?
  • 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