Marianne Hoet Joins Phillips: Phillips announced this morning that Marianne Hoet will be opening an office in Antwerp for Phillips:

• Ms. Hoet joins the company from Christie’s, where she was an International Director and Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art in Northern Europe. Widely considered one of Europe’s leading specialists in 20th century and contemporary art, she will play a significant role in building Phillips’s brand in Northern Europe.

Journalists Seem Shell-Shocked by the Bacon’s Failure: It’s odd to see so many journalists treat the failure of Francis Bacon’s Study of Red Pope 1962. 2nd Version 1971 to find a buyer as such a significant issue, especially when it seems to have upset no one in the trade. Here are a few quotes from the Financial Times that emphasize the Bacon as a milestone:

• October’s auction season in London will be remembered as the time that Francis Bacon […] didn’t sell.
• Art collectors are not buying anything at any price any more.
• Another question is whether we will experience again the drama of a work offered publicly for more than £50m without a guarantee to sell. I suspect not in the near future. …

Meanwhile, We’re Told Collectors Were Overwhelmed By Too Much Art: Scott Reyburn’s column ends with this comment that seems contrary to what we’re noticing in the sales results. Rather than reeling in a stupor from sensory overload at the fairs, auction buyers seem to have done their homework and focused on the places where they perceived that value lay:

• “There’s a volume issue,” said Anthony McNerney, director of contemporary art at Gurr Johns, an art valuation and advisory firm in London. “A lot of collectors were feeling ‘art blind,’ ” he added. …

Worries That If Trump Ends Estate Tax Museum Donations Will Be Hurt: Both the AP and Bloomberg have stories today about the prospect that the tax reform bill currently being written in Congress may eliminate the estate tax. In so doing, the expected effect on collectors is to make them less generous:

• “Without the estate tax, it would be easier for people to keep collections in the family. Such a shift in the tax rules could have a ripple effect on the art market and slow the flow of art from private homes to museum walls. Attorney Malcolm Taub, an expert in art law, said the elimination of the estate tax would end the tax issues when a collector dies, but could also “provide somewhat of a detriment” to museums, universities and other institutions that benefit from donations.” …

Picasso’s House Is So Nice, Someone Bought It Twice: Here’s a story that’s neither here nor there but its vaguely about Picasso, so … The master’s last home in the Provencal town of Mougins, not far from Cannes, was sold in a bank auction last week to Rayo Withanage, a Kiwi financial type with ties to the Sultan of Brunei, according to the WSJ’s Mansion Global. This makes the second time Withanage has won an auction for the home. The last time, his financing fell through causing the current sale.