Town & Country’s Mystery Art Market Numbers: The size of the art market is the subject of endless speculation. Private transactions are notoriously hard to estimate and what qualifies as art is often subject to debate. Several economists have worked hard at the problem, often collaborating with dealers, art fairs and other information sources to come up with an estimated figure somewhere in the range of $50-60bn. That’s a lot of money. But, apparently, they got it all wrong because Town & Country magazine has published this estimate which appears to come from former FBI art crime expert, Robert Wittman, “of the $200 billion spent worldwide on art every year, $6 billion is tainted by illicit activity, ‘and we’re not talking about people stealing paintings,’ says Robert Wittman” The quote caused one prominent economics professor to ask on Twitter where those numbers came from. The article also includes a quote from a current FBI agent suggesting that art is appearing more and more in money-laundering cases, again, without offering any evidence of this oft-cited but little supported claim. …
Vivien Leigh Surprises at Sotheby’s: The Vivien Leigh sale, which many might have thought was conjuring with a name too remote for 21st Century sensibilities, was 100% sold and led by a Sir Winston Churchill painting given to the movie star by the Prime Minister that sold for £638k or nearly 10 times the low estimate. Sotheby’s reports: “Over 1,400 participants from 52 countries drove the auction total to £2,243,867 ($3,031,016), over five times the pre-sale estimate.” …
MIlton Avery Stars at Edward Albee Sale: The estate of playwright Edward Albee was sold at Sotheby’s yesterday for $12.5m. It too was 100% sold with works by Milton Avery, Lee Krasner, John McLaughlin and Kurt Schwitters significantly out-performing estimates. One Avery—Meditation from 1960 which sold for $3.668m—achieved the second highest price for the artist at auction. The success of the sale may simply be due to the fame of the collector or the charitable purposes of the sale. But the pattern of buyers looking for high-quality works from lesser-known artists is also a constant theme in the background of auction results for the last two years.
