Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

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

As ArtBasel Opens, Easy Credit, Hard-to-Find Stock and Brand Consciousness Haunt the Market

June 15, 2015 by Marion Maneker


ArtBasel opens tomorrow. In the meantime, the crowd is settling into to town, traipsing around Liste and generally musing on the state of the art market. Here are a few quotes from Katya Kazakina on Bloomberg:

  • “Interest rates are so low that people have so much money they don’t know what to do with it,” said Robert Landau, owner of Landau Fine Art, which is offering a $30 million Pablo Picasso painting. He said one of his clients is a 37-year-old man who retired after earning a fortune and is “sailing around the world and buying paintings to put on the boat.”
  • “When people see auction prices they think everything we have is very cheap,” said Landau, owner of the Montreal and Meggen, Switzerland-based gallery. “The auctions are helping us. They are raising prices on everything.”

  • “People who are buying at auction are unlikely to buy through galleries,” said Paul Gray, director of Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago and New York. Asian collectors, who have been big buyers at recent auctions, are particularly finicky, he said. “They are extremely brand conscious,” Gray said. “It’s not just the artists. It’s also the Sotheby’s and Christie’s provenance.”
  • “I’ve been through at least 25 packing lists and I have seen very few ‘Oh my God’ pieces,” said Todd Levin, director of Levin Art Group, whose clients have included Leonardo DiCaprio and hedge fund manager Adam Sender. “It seems harder to fill the booths.”

Gilded Age of Art Draws Billionaires to $3.4 Billion Basel Fair (Bloomberg Business)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Sotheby’s Adds $40m Modigliani to London SaleSotheby’s Adds $40m Modigliani to London Sale
  • Koons SpeaksKoons Speaks
  • Christie’s Hammers Down Its Position in the Art MarketChristie’s Hammers Down Its Position in the Art Market
  • Lost in Translation: Should Directionless Private Collections, Driven by Enthusiasm and Sociability, Become MuseumsLost in Translation: Should Directionless Private Collections, Driven by Enthusiasm and Sociability, Become Museums
  • Schnabel Surfaces in VeniceSchnabel Surfaces in Venice
  • Starving ArtistsStarving Artists

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

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Christie's Announces $70m Picasso Self Portrait
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Mark Rothko, Tamara de Lempicka, Mickalene Thomas to Star in Phillips London Evening Sale
  • David Hockney's $20m Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • 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