Auction calendars are continuing to shift because of the coronavirus pandemic, with Christie’s moving its marquee Hong Kong sales. The sales were scheduled for the end of May despite the coronavirus shuttering many Hong Kong businesses. Now, the house has shuffled the schedule to July 5 in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong sales will now be held during the same week as Sotheby’s and Phillips’s auctions, both of which had scheduled their auctions for the spring in the territory. Christie’s executives announced the shift in a conference call on Wednesday morning, and they also revealed a few other auctions set to occur in the upcoming months, among them an online Walker Evans sale to take place at the end of April, as well as a sale of works from the Saatchi Gallery collection and a Warhol charity auction, which are set to occur in person and online.

A Christie’s representative said that the house in the process of securing a site to exhibit works from the sale with the understanding that traffic flow will have to be limited to comply with coronavirus-related guidelines. No tentative date was immediately provided for the showing of works hitting the block.

Marc Porter, Christie’s chairman of Americas, confirmed that, even in spite of the art market’s uncertainty, top clients are viewing the current situation as an opportunity to acquire objects for their collections that previously have not been available. As public auctions remain the industry standard for calibrating the health of individual artists markets, Porter said, “the real driver of the return to normal volume in the market is when the estates start to appear. The estates will be poised to sell in the fall, and that is when we will see the price points.” Porter added that clients are now seeking market stability—something proven, he claimed, by an increased interest in offerings in private sales.

Guillaume Cerutti, Christie’s CEO, said the house was growing online and witnessing a rising demand for works offered via private sale. The house reported that funds brought in from private sales were up 28 percent over last year. The price points in those sales are reportedly also remaining stable.

As the house continues to evaluate the coronavirus’s economic impact on the U.S., Christie’s officials are still reviewing whether to apply for funding that’s part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Christie’s asked the 500 most highly paid employees if they would take a temporary pay cut of between 10 and 20 percent, 95% of those asked agreed. Meanwhile, roughly 40 percent of its workforce based in the U.K. and Europe has been furloughed. The firm has committed to paying back the lost salaries once business returns to normal.

On Friday, Sotheby’s Photographs sale, which was originally scheduled to take place as a live auction at the company’s New York headquarters ended its online bidding period— offering a total of 199 lots, the sale saw a sell-through rate of just 61%, but reached a solid total result of $3 million.

The leading lot among the group of works was László Moholy-Nagy photogram Broom: An International Magazine of the Arts, from 1922 – the edition is a rare example of early modern photography used in editorial design. Having been shown in seminal exhibitions such as 100 Years of Bauhaus’ show in Berlin, the work transferred ownership through Moholy-Nagy’s family and this is the first time the work had come to auction. Landing solidly within its estimate of $400,000-$600,000, the work only saw two bids before reaching its sale price of $524,000. Sotheby’s Head of Photographs Department in New York, Emily Bierman noted that among the group of works on offer “the result for the Moholy-Nagy is also a significant standout, as it is the third most valuable work sold in an online sale at Sotheby’s this year. In the past few seasons, we’ve seen considerable growth for the European Modernism photographs market, and the exceptional result for the Moholy-Nagy, which is one of the highest prices ever achieved at auction for a photograph by the artist, is a prime example of the strength of the market.”

Other works that performed well against their estimates were contemporary conceptual artist Christian Marclay’s Memento (UB40)—a large-scale cyanotype produced by the artist overlaying unraveled cassette tapes on photo-paper and exposing to sunlight— the piece drew 21 bidders, doubling its high estimate of $70,000 and ultimately realizing a selling price of $162,500. A small-scale rare photo from 1911 by Italian photographers, Anton Giulio and Arturo Bragaglia, Un Gesto del Capo (A Gesture of the Head) which had also been passed down through the family of the artist, had 9 bidders total — ultimately selling for $100,000, doubling its low estimate of $50,000. Photography master and modern icon, Alfred Stieglitz’s photogravure, The Hand of Man, from 1902 realized $112,500, placing between its estimate of $80-120,000. An auction record was set for the American artist and active member of the 1980s downtown arts scene, Tseng Kwong Chi. His 1979 print Disneyland, California comes from the artist’s seminal series of image depicting the Hong-Kong born artist dressed as a Chinese communist official posed blithely in front of American landmarks and tourist hubs. The work, which is said to be the first edition of this particular image to come to auction achieved $27,500, beating its high estimate of $25,000. New York Photography mainstay, Joel Meyerowitz, Paris, Falling Man beat its high estimate of $7,000 with 18 total bidders, eventually reaching its sale price of $10,625. A mainstay in many photographs sales are Warhol polaroids. This time, a set of the artist’s Polaroids depicting toys saw a total of 17 bidders, more than doubling its low estimate of $4,000 and realizing a selling price of $10,625.

As the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic maintains closures of all public sales and arts programming, the online sales that have replaced live auctions show the current temperature of the slowed market. For Sotheby’s, the expansion to digital platforms appears to meeting demand and attracting new buyers. Acknowledging the market’s robust response to the sale, Bierman also noted that “first-time Photographs bidders comprised more than half of all bidders in the sale—a sure sign that our online platform was able to reach not only new bidders to Sotheby’s but also have crossover appeal to collectors in other categories.”

With more than five items sold for a price over $100,000, the top sector of the Photographs auction have typically been an avenue for multi-category collectors with an attention to modernism to source historically valuable artists at an affordable price. With 30% of the buyers reportedly new to the company at-large, the smaller online sales will continue to be a key space for the firms capacity to engage their collecting base while salerooms are closed.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a rare drawing by Pablo Picasso formerly owned by Berlin banker, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy —forced to liquidate his collection prior to the start of World War II —will be sold privately through the gallery for a price of at least $10 million. The sellers of the pastel work on paper, Head of a Woman, dated 1903, are Mendelsson’s descendants, who were recently granted ownership of the work in a restitution case against Washington’s National Gallery of Art, which has owned the piece since 2001.

The WSJ also reported that the dealer, Larry Gagosian confirmed the family’s heirs, among whom there are about a dozen largely based in Europe, brought the piece to the attention of the gallery last fall to inquire about a potential sale in the event they were awarded rights. According to the dealer, the descendants chose his firm for the sale due to Gagosian’s long-secured relationship with the Picasso Estate and record of sales contributing to the artist’s robust market. Although the group’s attorney, John Byrne, did not disclose information regarding financial terms of the sale, the judgement is one that could lead to the pursuit of further restitution cases. This work is one of three total the National Gallery of Art has returned to heirs at the center of cultural reparation suits whose relatives were impacted by Nazi-era persecution.

As the weight of the coronavirus pandemic continues to challenge the art market, blue-chip dealers and auction houses have shifted attention to expanding private sale offerings in place of live programming. The decision marks another win for private trade, which is at this moment of economic fragility, an attractive consignment option over an uncertain public auction sector.

Completed during Picasso’s early Blue Period, a brief era in the early 1900s when the artist was in his early twenties— prior to a transition into his later signature abstract-cubist figuration—the picture is rare in its resemblance to a finished study for a traditional oil painting portrait. Featuring an austere blue-eyed woman reminiscent of an old masters sitter, it recalls the same melancholic tone of his early works whose subjects were based on the ill and impoverished. In the past, the piece has lived in the private collection of the Guggenheim where it landed in 1978. After subsequent sales at auction, it was finally donated to the National gallery from the estate of its former owner, American drawings collector and real-estate mogul, Ian Woodner in a posthumous gift to the institution thirty years ago.

Among the other major works in Mr. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s collection, which included five Picasso paintings and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, before he was forced to dismantle it under pressure from the Nazi regime includes Picasso’s painting “Boy with a Pipe,” from 1905 which sold in a record Sotheby’s impressionist and modern art sale for $104 million in 2004.

The impact of the shutdown on the arts sector has stifled long-planned exhibitions; dealers like Gagosian are now vying to compensate for those closures with online programming. In response, Gagosian will launch ‘Artist Spotlight’— a new weekly series focused on a host of established names from its roster that will begin on April 8^th.

For Gagosian, the plan to highlight one work by a single artist each week will be shared with online editorials including interviews and film recommendations. In order to adapt to the new method of exhibition and to secure sales, major blue-chip dealers are now tasked with the challenge of virtual story-telling.

The gallery’s owner, Larry Gagosian, noted the unprecedented situation: “we discussed presenting our scheduled exhibitions online, but that is not how they were conceived. We needed a solution that didn’t require our artists to make that compromise.” Gagosian remarked further on the widespread changes to the market that require an urgent plan of action — “that is the challenge for us—you innovate and keep your resources and strategies flexible to support your artists when your doors have to temporarily close to a volatile world. And when the market is volatile, it is precision that gets you through.”

Galleries, museums and auction houses have swiftly rolled out digital platforms and collaborations in the past several weeks, Gagosian Gallery recognized that a closure of the gallery could not shut down their artists’ access to a market. Many of the artists featured in Artist Spotlight run studios that employ a number of persons like any small business. Giving those artists access to buyers supports their ability to make payroll and provide benefits like health insurance to employees. The Artist Spotlight program is intended to bridge the gap between the crisis lockdown and the eventual resumption of gallery shows and attendance.

The artists who are appropriate to the Artist Spotlight shows only comprise a portion of Gagosian’s roster. “There were a certain number of artists who fit the spotlight criteria,” said Sam Orlofsky, the Gagosian director who piloted the launch of the gallery’s online viewing rooms. “What are we doing for everyone else? We’re going to do online viewing rooms scheduled to the regular art fair calendar.”

That means an online viewing room in May timed to the original date for Frieze New York and one in June timed to the dates for Art Basel.

Returning to today’s announcement, the first artist to be featured in the inaugural edition of Artist Spotlight will be New-York based multi-media artist Sarah Sze, who was scheduled for a solo exhibition slated to open at Gagosian’s Paris gallery on March 18th just before the city enacted its closure policy. The show was meant to feature a set of Sze’s new assemblage paintings — now, just one of her works will be featured on the gallery’s official website during the series, where pricing will be available for just 48 hours.  Some of the other contemporary market darlings who will be starring in the spotlight program are Damien Hirst, Jenny Saville, Stanley Whitney, Jennifer Guidi, Theaster Gates, Dan Colen, Urs Fischer, Mark Grotjahn and Mary Weatherford among others.

For the first time, as part of an initiative to quell the impact of nation-wide gallery closures, David Zwirner has partnered with a host of smaller Lower east side galleries to bring virtual sales to its new online exhibition venue. The effort is titled Platform: New York.

Hosting a selection of twelve galleries featuring works by emerging artists ripe among the New York art scene, Zwirner’s online viewing rooms went live to the public on Friday and will run through until May 1st. With this digital option replacing live exhibitions, the online sales have shifted from being a disappointing remedy to the coronavirus disruptions on the global art industry to becoming a source of unprecedented collaboration within the industry. Initial interest around the program’s novelty has driven high engagement for these virtual spaces. A Zwirner representative confirmed several sales made on the exhibition’s opening day, with a total of 8,000 visitors to the website.

The offerings are among the highly conceptual segment of the emerging artist’s sector. Platform: New York comprises works almost entirely readymade. The show presents a refreshing variation from the paintings favored by the market seen through global art fairs and public auctions. The digital “rooms” feel like bespoke editorial spreads made for a highly discerning online audience that expects beautiful media. The detailed imagery manages to let the hyperreality of the works come across without feeling like a simulation.

47 Canal’s show features installations by New York-based artist Josh Kline, who is slated to be the subject of an upcoming solo survey at Oslo’s renowned Astrup Fearnley Museum. Kline’s Submersion from 2019 is an orange painted lab hood, underneath which houses solvent submerged petri-dishes holding doll-house interiors back-lit by a flame-colored fluorescence. One close-up shot stands out – showing a hyper-miniscule living room that bends perception. Carrying a price of $85,000, the museum-quality work is among the most expensive of the works in Platform. Another work, his 2016 Desperation Distillation featuring a shopping cart filled with cast bottle sculptures and lit from beneath carries a price tag of $75,000.

At JJT, new works by Elaine Cameron-Weir, a Canadian artist known for her industrial-influenced practice debuted. Her stainless steel sculpture, Snake 11 from 2020 is priced at $50,00 and a second work, a triptych made of metal and rawhide comprising chandelier parts is priced at $35,000.

At James Fuentes two Keegan Monaghan oil paintings from 2019 carried prices between $30,000 and $40,000. In Bridget Donahue’s digital corner, multi-media artist Lisa Alvarado’s two acutely painted canvases texturized to appear like quilt fabric are price at $14,000 each. For the artist “the works are repositories of memory, vibrational reminders of invisible states.”

At Queer Thoughts, one of the few set of paintings in the exhibition is Megan Marrin’s The Rest Cure and Regimen from 2020 each stark and surreal-esque depictions of antique scaffolded brass showers with an anatomical undercurrent. Both paintings carry a price of $22,000.

At Company gallery, Troy Michie’s cut paper, photo and print assemblages are host to socio-political scheme and ruminations on identity with Divid Terriority and Los Atravesados/ The Skin Of The Earth Is Seamless both made in 2019 are each priced at $16,500.

At Brooklyn’s Elijah Wheat Gallery, sculptor Zsofia Keresztes’s installation Glossy Inviolability features a massive glass mosaic piece, that starkly resembles an outsider art monument, is priced at $15,000. At 94 Allen Street’s Magenta Plains, painter Nathanial Robinson’s blurry landscapes nod to a temporal blip between passing scenery. Presenting works made between 2019 and 2020, the large-scale paintings are priced between $14,000 and $20,000.

At Bureau, on the lower east side between Stanton and Houston street, Brandon Ndife’s 2020 sculptural work, Breeding Ground made in 2020, a sculptural floor-based work features a repurposed wood shelving unit hosting earthen decay. The item is just one among his broader installation My Zone which now sits in the closed gallery, realizing the work’s “post-disaster” imperative. Two of his available works are priced between $3,500 and $6,500.