When Art Is a Currency, Impressionist and Modern Works Still Trade Well

Scott Reyburn tries to make sense of the dual news of Qatar’s purchase of Gauguin’s When Will You Marry? and the strong Impressionist and Modern sales in London in the context of so much attention being paid to Contemporary art:

• “Contemporary is about playing the casino,” said the Paris dealer Christian Ogier, who attended the London sales. “Impressionist and modern art is about serious money looking for an investment. My clients are trying to find somewhere to park their money.”
• “Monet has become the trophy name of this market cycle,” said the London art adviser Wendy Goldsmith, a former head of 19th-century paintings at Christie’s. “He’s so coveted, like Renoir was in the 1980s. He’s become a currency.” […] “People want the identifiable brand on the wall, something that will be instantly recognized when people walk in the room,” Ms. Goldsmith said.
• “Over the last four or five years we’ve seen people willing to go the extra distance for A-plus works,” the New York art adviser Abigail Asher said. “Those prices leave the rest of the market behind.”

At Auction in London, ‘Jewels of the 20th Century’  (NYTimes.com)