Art Market Monitor

Amid the coronavirus closures across the art industry, Christie’s has now made updates to their digital platform. In an attempt to draw attention to an array of private sale offering across collecting categories including modern and contemporary art, American art, Old Masters, and luxury — the move comes with an emphasis on collector engagement.

The house reported that its total figures achieved through all online transactions, which includes online purchases, absentee bidding and the firm’s LIVE platform — reached $270.4 up 8% from $250.4 million achieved in 2018. Although online bidding is not revenue, it indicates the transactional potential of the collecting base. The majority of Christie’s clients bought and bid online in 2019, at a total of 64%, and 41% of new buyers were brought in through the company’s online platforms in 2019.

As private sales continue to serve as an increasingly competitive sector within the auction market, Sotheby’s and Christie’s have each built strategies around online expansion to meet the needs of client groups at different spending segments. As seen in the data from 2019, in periods of economic uncertainty, collectors opt for the the control provided in private sales. And with public auction sales seeing a decrease of 17%, private sales have been the antidote to a more discerning class of collectors.

Prior to this renewed digital focus, the auction houses have had to be more creative in their marketing approach — producing cross-branded exhibitions in order to merge promotion of the fine art and luxury categories into a unified selling space. Curating the sales has been key. In a November 2019 private sale exhibition, Christie’s used Dolce&Gabbana and Alta Moda couture to plug Old Master paintings and decorative arts.

Some of the art currently on offer at Christie’s include works by leading market names like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, Fernand Leger, Emile Nolde and Max Erst among others.

Christie’s Deputy Chief Marketing Officer, Matthew Rubinger, emphasized that time spent in the past weeks updating these digital forums has been “to ensure our doors remain open from a digital standpoint, so that our audiences across the world can continue to engage with us.” For Christie’s it appears that continuing to woo new buyers is a key focus. Noting the wide use of online platforms just to get people in the door, Rubinger assured engagement in the priority — “whether that means learning more about their favorite collecting category, seeing a work of art in a virtual viewing room, or bidding on an item through our trusted online sale platform.”

Yesterday, Sotheby’s closed its online sale solely featuring prints by British street artist Bansky. The sale achieved a total of £1.1 million ($1.4 million) offering a total of 25 lots and seeing a 96% sell through rate.

The sale was led by the artist’s most widely recognized image Girl with Balloon realizing a price of £375,000. Among the other works which saw high bidding was Bomb Love, a 2003 screenprint featuring the image of a young woman embracing a bomb against a bright pink background. The work saw a total of 22 bids before reaching its selling price of £27,500 and more than doubling its high estimate of £9,000. The house also boasted new auction records for a selection of Banksy’s iconic prints including Gangsta Rat, Love Rat, Di-Faced Tenners, Applause and Grannies.Continue Reading

Sotheby’s recently announced their major 20th Century Hong Kong sales, which had been moved to New York in April, are now shifting to the week of July 5 in Hong Kong. The flip-flopping schedule has done little to dampen anticipation for the season’s key lots. Foremost among them are Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara’s Keep Your Chin Up (2001). Starring a manga-style child-like figure depicted against an open neutral plain, Nara’s portrait depicts a wide emotional range that references political and social unease. Imagined from Japanese graphic books and music influences, Nara’s toy-like protagonists show the sinister side of pop. Often alluding to dark urges – portrayed shielding weapons and masking malice, Nara’s characters have become iconic semblances of modern subversion and introspection. Through this signature style, the multi-media artist has become established as a forerunner of the 1990s Japanese neo-Pop movement. Drawing mass appeal through repeated motifs—comparable to Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama—Nara’s works are becoming market drivers.

Sourcing much of his aesthetic from album covers and pop culture, Nara’s pop-punk roots have established him among the vanguard of contemporary cultural critics. Throughout his interdisciplinary practice, rebellion is a key element. His works grasp at the primary feelings of childhood, where frustration and anguish don’t yet have language. This return to childlike emotions among contemporary artists has been labeled “faux naif.”  Combining dead-pan pop with Japanese cute culture, Nara’s creations—often with an undertone of anxiety—resonate beyond their local references.Continue Reading

On Tuesday, Dallas-based auction house saw success in their monthly Urban Art sale. With competitive bidding for some of the category’s top names like KAWS, RETNA and Mr. Brainwash, the sale saw a 99 percent sell-through with 66 lots achieving a total of $723,250.

Among the top selling lots were three works by KAWS, who is a mainstay in urban and street art collectibles sales across the secondary market. The most expensive KAWS work sold was an untitled black and white graphic abstract on canvas dated 2014. It made $125,000. The piece was purchased at Phillips just two years earlier. Selling for $90,625, a signature KAWS plastic toy-like sculpture 4FT Dissected Companion (Black), measuring four feet high was also among the most expensive lots, exceeding its high estimate of $80,000. A 2011 blue ink canvas by Los-Angeles-based graffiti artist RETNA, a popular sell among the street art works available also sold for $40,000.

The value of online collectible auctions like these is often found in its most eccentric lots. Of the most unique items on offer in the auction was a pair of 9 ½ vintage Apple Inc. off-white sneakers, bearing the company’s iconic rainbow logo — the lot saw aggressive initial bidding and ultimately realized a price of $9,687. The rare item just nearly met its low estimate of $10,000. The shoe is known to have been made for employees between the 1980s and early 1990s as a promotional collaboration with Adidas — it is one of only two editions that have ever been offered for public sale. As 90s fashion continues to maintain its moment in luxury street wear, the time to sell seems ripe even with a coronavirus lockdown.

Retro objects from Apple’s early days have recently seen a high level of interest at auction. Earlier this month, Boston-based RR Auction sold a 1976 Apple-1 computer, comprising a still-functioning keyboard and circuit kit — one of its earliest prototypes — for a total of $458,711. In May 2019, in a Christie’s London pop culture and collectibles sale, another edition of the machine realized a price in excess of $500,000. The computers are said to each be from a group of 175 made manually by the company’s founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. For brand fans, the Apple memorabilia comes with the aura of Jobs legacy and also holds value as contemporary Americana.

As the auction world continues to cultivate an active collecting base on the West-coast, rare objects with tech roots may be the hook for burgeoning wealth in Silicon Valley. Pop culture merchandise moments continue to peak interest among buyers with niche tastes, and as such in the fine art categories, rarity is key.

As the impact of the coronavirus’s spread has forced the auction sector to makes major changes to its spring calendar, each of the top auction houses has announced sales calendar shifts, with Christie’s and Phillips now holding their leading 20th century week sales at the end of June and consolidating New York and London sales to be held in their Manhattan locations.

As announced last week, Sotheby’s moved a selection of live mid-spring sales online, and on Wednesday, the house confirmed plans to relocate its Hong Kong Modern and Contemporary Art Sales — which had been scheduled to be moved to New York in mid-April amid growing Covid-19 concerns — to now be moved back to their original location in Hong Kong at the beginning of July. Sotheby’s Asia CEO Kevin Ching noted the sale changes would “provide the best possible context for our consignors and buyers.”

The house’s three major Hong Kong sales affected by the change include the Modern Art Evening Sale and Contemporary Art Evening & Day Sales to coincide with the remaining sales series, which includes multiple categories comprising offerings of Chinese works of art and Southeast Asian art as well as jewels, watches, and wine.

Featuring sale highlights from the modern and contemporary evening sales such as David Hockney’s anticipated $10.3 million 30 Sunflowers from 1996 and Chinese painter Sanyu’s Quatre Nus, the traveling exhibitions slated for this week in Hong Kong and, in April, in Taipei have also been postponed with new dates yet to be announced.