The results of this sentiment poll are available to AMMpro subscribers. Monthly subscribers—who can cancel at any time—begin with their first month free. Look for a follow-up sentinment survey after the sales, feel free to contribute any questions you might have for that survey here.

Earlier in the week we sent a poll to our newsletter mailing list to get a sense of how market participants feel in the face of the New York auctions next week when a substantial portion of the industry’s business will get done—in one way or another. The poll respondents cover a wide range of client-facing functions though few auction house employees are represented.

We’ll go into more detail below but the overall perception of the market is very strong. More than two thirds of respondents express bullish sentiments. Buyers are either scouring the middle market for works that they perceive to be undervalued or they are simply eager to buy.

The other central issue we polled our newsletter readers on was the questions of where value lies in the market. There respondents had an even clearer preference for finding historical works by recognized master artists that they feel are either under-valued or will increase in value over time.

Only a small minority of respondents (~20%) had works on offer either of their own or for clients but a third were bidding. On the general question of whether auction prices fit in with respondents perception of the market, there was a slight to moderate bias toward confusion with a third of respondents saying bids were somewhere on the continuum toward “all over the map.” In other words, the bulk of respondents felt bidding was unpredictable either for a raft of artists or across the market as a whole.

Further, a third of respondents felt New York’s gigaweek would exceed expectations. Two thirds were confident in the market and felt sales totals would meet or exceed expectations.

As far as the auction calendar is concerned, most respondents (~70%) only wanted to see some changes in the auction calendar or would be happy to see it remain the same. Respondents were mostly indifferent to the news that Christie’s had moved its Contemporary art sales out of the June auction cycle in London.

Finally, taking the temperature of last week’s art fairs in New York, respondents were underwhelmed by Frieze and pleasantly surprised by TEFAF’s Spring sale. Our readers gave this Spring’s edition of Frieze New York a score of 46 out of 100. TEFAF, in contrast, got a 56 out of 100.