Angus Murray, Castlestone Management’s head, issued this press release today with some interesting numbers on the number of bidders in the New York Evening sales. We’ve asked Castlestone for a little more detail on this chart but you can see that it shows the average number of bidders (bars) vs. the average number of lots (line) in the New York Evening Sales from 2004 to 2009. In the Fall of 2009, the number of bidders exceeds even the boom years.

Castlestone also makes mention of a rise in year-over-year bidders during the London sales earlier this year:

The sudden rise in the number of bidders at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art auctions is estimated to be up by 85% in February 2010 to last year and 18% from the height of the Contemporary Art boom in 2007, mostly attributed to demand thus pushing prices above estimated values.

Of course, Castlestone also makes some positive statements about their fund:Continue Reading