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Botticelli Portrait Sells for Record-Breaking $92 M. at Sotheby’s as Old Masters Market Feels Jolt

January 28, 2021 by Colin Gleadell

Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli, Young Man Holding a Roundel Courtesy, 15th-century.
Sotheby's
The report is is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

Thursday's long-awaited Old Masters sale at Sotheby’s New York had been billed as potentially being the biggest sale of its kind ever with a pre-sale estimate, not including buyers’ premium, of $121.9 million–$142.8 million. But after three lots were withdrawn, including a highly-rated $20 million–$30 million Rembrandt, that estimate was reduced to $100 million–$110 million.

Nonetheless, the sale continued Sotheby’s New York winter Old Master sales steady upward trajectory, arguably at the expense of the London equivalents. Since 2017, totals from these sales have risen from $35.8 million to $69.7 million last year. Today’s sale—the first half of a two-part auction—totaled $114.5 million alone. The London winter Old Master sales (which play second fiddle to their higher-value summer auctions) show a reverse momentum, coming in at £36.5 million in 2018, £19.2 million in 2019, and £11.8 million in 2020.

The record to beat today was £85 million ($135 million including premium), set by Christie’s in London in July 2012, when 15 works sold for over £1 million ($1.4 million), including John Constable’s The Lock, which sold for £22 million ($30 million). Today’s sale fell somewhat short of that.


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A Season of Resilience: Fall 2020 Hong Kong Auction Analysis

January 25, 2021 by Angelica Villa

Zhang Xiaogang, Bloodline: Big Family, No. 2 (1995)
Zhang Xiaogang, Bloodline: Big Family, No. 2 (1995)
Courtesy Christie’s
The analysis of the Fall 2020 Hong Kong auctions at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

In the Fall of 2020—following changes to the auction calendar, an expansion of online sales and several strategic partnerships between market players—the art market seemed to be losing its pandemic momentum. The strong demand seen in March, at the beginning of lockdowns across the Europe and U.S., turned towards a more selective market, with collectors still driven by opportunism amid the economic lag.

By December, the auctions in both Hong Kong and in New York, had revealed strong demand from Asian buyers that would ultimately power the late-season sales held to make up some market volume lost during the lockdown. Although the demand from Asia was also visible in the New York results through either bidding from Hong Kong in the relay sales or simply direct bidding from Asia in the New York livestream sales, the Hong Kong results provided the starkest evidence that a market slump was being avoided because of robust Asian buying.

Phillips doubled down on the region, following its strongest Asia-based sale of 20th-century and contemporary art and design in July, by teaming up with China’s largest state-owned auction house, Poly Auction. The joint evening sale was a watershed event for the smallest of the three global auction houses. The sale made a total of HKD 400 million ($50 million) and brought in a host of records for emerging artists like Salman Toor and the late Matthew Wong.

At Christie's, the December evening sale and a single-lot auction devoted to a Sanyu painting depicting goldfish, generated a collective HKD 1.02 billion ($132 million) across 53 lots. That is in addition to the $119.3 million realized in the New York-Hong Kong relay sale that followed the same day. Weeks prior, Sotheby's brought in $184 million across its Hong Kong modern and contemporary art evening auctions—up 26 percent from the 2019 equivalent sales.


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A Season of Improvisation: Fall 2020 New York Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Analysis

January 19, 2021 by Angelica Villa

René Magritte, Untitled (Woman's Face covered by a Rose)
Courtesy Phillips.
The report is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

The Covid pandemic presented—and still presents—numerous logistical challenges to the auction market for art. The three main houses, Phillips, Christie's and Sotheby's, were finally able to unlock the auction market this past Summer by creating a new type of livestream auction that barred direct bidding but retained the trappings and excitement of its marquee evening sales. Having been deprived of the opportunity to conduct sales for most of the first half of the year, all three houses tried to make up for the lost revenue with a series of sales in October, November and December that loosely followed the traditional auction calendar.

One outcome of this improvisation was that the old, location-based format, where all three houses converged upon a city to stage sales on successive nights, gave way to sales that often straddled locations on different continents. In an effort to assuage clients, Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips held a series of smaller live-streamed auctions dedicated to 20th-21st century art, spread out across the season up until the end of December 2020. Across New York, London and Hong Kong sale locations, there is one observable fact: fewer ultra-high value works have been offered at auction even though there are credible reports that demand remains quite high for these types of works.

Nevertheless, the leading lots of the New York modern and contemporary auctions were those by blue-chip names like Pablo Picasso, Cy Twombly, Alexander Calder, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and Paul Cezanne.


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Records for Rediscovered Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Domenico Ghirlandaio Top Christie’s $31 M. Old Masters Auction

December 16, 2020 by Angelica Villa

Domenico Ghirlandaio (Florence 1448/9-1494), Salvator Mundi   (Courtesy Christie's)
The report is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

On Tuesday, Christie’s set artist records for new-to-market works during its final old masters evening sale of the year.  Live-streamed from its London headquarters, the sale brought in £18.7 million on the hammer or £22.8 million with buyer's fees ($30.9 million) across 38 lots. That total landed solidly within the pre-sale estimate range of £14 million-£21 million. Led by Christie's global president Jussi Pylkknänen, the evening sale saw a sell-through rate of 86 percent. That was equivalent to last year's sale, which had a slightly higher total of £24.2 million made across 44 lots. Three lots were withdrawn before the sale, including Milanese painter Bernadino Luini's anticipated canvas, The Nativity, with the Journey to Egypt, estimated at £3 million-£5 million.


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Sales Report: Art Basel ‘OVR’ Miami Beach December 2020

December 14, 2020 by Angelica Villa

Kwame Brathwaite, Untitled (Clara Lewis Buggs with Yellow Flower), ca. 1962, printed 2020
Courtesy Philip Martin Gallery

The report is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)
Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, London, Somerset, Los Angeles, New York, St. Moritz, Hong Kong):
  • Sold George Condo’s oil painting Distanced Figures (2020) for $2.2 million, John Chamberlain’s painted-and-stainless-steel sculpture SUPERSTARMARTINI (1999) for $1 million, Rashid Johnson’s oil on linen Anxious Red Painting July 8th 2020 for 675,000, Avery Singer’s Soda Gun (2020) for $425,000, and Simone Leigh’s bronze sculpture Sphinx (2020) for $400,000. Buyers also purchased works by Lorna Simpson, Mary Heilmann and Nicolas Party for prices between $300,000–$350,000.

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