Art Market Monitor

This analysis of the Spring to Summmer 2021 New York, London and Paris 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.)

After a tumultuous period during the first phase of the pandemic, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips have bounced back in 2021 to sale levels not seen since the last market peak in 2015.

An analysis of data across 13 modern and contemporary art sales that took place at the three houses between New York, London, and Paris from April through July shows abiding strength. During that time the three houses brought in a total of $1.74 billion. This up from the $1.1 billion achieved in global evening and day sales during the same period in 2020. Pablo Picasso and Jean-Michel Basquiat led the comeback. Emerging names like Flora Yukhnovich, Salman Toor, and Cinga Samson are also on the rise.

Auction house executives have pointed to several reasons for the return to animal spirits in the art market. A boost in buying from clients based in Asia is one reason they cite. A balance between the supply of top works available on the market and demand is another. Basically, strong sales have encouraged owners of the most valuable property that now is the time to sell.

Unlike the uptick in Asia, market hubs in the have West plateaued year-over-year. According to a recent report published by London art market data firm Pi-eX, auctions in North America, which is typically the largest regional market, fell even further in 2021. The U.S. saw a 16-percent drop from its 2019 sales volume instead.

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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.)

A portrait of Flemish artist Cornelis de Vos and his family made by another painter in his circle, Anthony van Dyck, when he was just emerging at 20 years old from the studio of his teacher Peter Paul Rubens achieved $3.4 million, one of the artist’s top results, in Sotheby’s Old Masters evening sale in London last week. The sale came after the painting was held for four decades in a private collection on the island of Jersey. The work had been recovered by the famed World War II team of art sleuths known as the Monuments Men and returned to its original Jewish-Dutch owners in 1948. The sale came in at more than double the $1.4 million estimate. It now ranks as the sixth highest price paid for a van Dyck at auction, surpassing the $3.3 million paid for his royal portrait of the young Prince of Wales sold at Sotheby’s in February 2018. That work came to auction after more than a century in private hands.

The Flemish Baroque painter van Dyck had a prolific career as a British royal court painter in the 17^th century. Known for his commanding depictions of high-status sitters, he has become one of the top sellers in the old masters category. The bulk of his most expensive auction sales include museum acquisitions, rediscoveries or paintings long unseen by scholars. When they surface at auction, they have fueled the momentum behind the artist’s market.Continue Reading

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.)

Lévy Gorvy, is mounting an exhibition of Mickalene Thomas’s works in all four of its galleries. The shows in New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong that will open at each location between September and October. The global expansion of the artists representation matches the international interest in her art at auction and the growing scope of her market.

The show, “Beyond the Pleasure Principle,” will focus on Thomas’s interest in the Black female body, including paintings, installations, and video. Her imagery draws from her personal archives and the media of the 1970s, the decade she came of age.

The show comes after auction prices for her work passed new milestones. Last month, her painting Racquel Reclining Wearing Purple Jumpsuit (2016), a collaged and glittered portrait of a woman reclining across a couch, sold for $1.8 million at a Christie’s evening sale, triple its $600,000 high estimate. The result set a new record for the artist and became the first lot by Thomas to reach seven-figures at auction.

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