Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

Christie’s Can’t Wait, New York Sales Move to October with $25 M. Cézanne Announcement

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Paul Cezanne, Nature morte avec pot au lait, melon et sucrier (1900–06). Christie’s Images LTD. 2020.

Following its global relay “ONE” sale in July, Christie’s will hold the first major sales run by the house’s newly merged modern and contemporary departments this October in addition to the traditional November. The hybrid live format day and evening sales will take place at the house’s Rockefeller Center location on October 6 and 7.

“We’re giving consignors and buyer multiple opportunities this fall to buy at auction,” Alex Rotter, Christie’s Chairman of Postwar and Contemporary Art in New York, said in an interview when asked what caused the scheduling shift. “These collectors are happily making use of a wide range of platforms, they are buying works across categories, and they certainly are not glued to the conventional auction schedule.”

Christie’s witnessed the success of Sotheby’s “Rembrandt to Richter” sale in June—an “unthinkable date,” according to Rotter—and decided it could also shift collectors’ calendars. But the move was also driven by a desire to seize on a bright moment for the art market, one which some prognosticators fear won’t last, due to the possibility of a second pandemic wave. “Rather than wait for the worst-case scenario, we decided to take advantage of the moment now as long as it holds,” Rotter said, adding that the house still plans to host its typical November sales, but is merely exploring its options with the October one.Continue Reading

Bacon, Picasso, Lichtenstein Top 2020 Global Modern & Contemporary Auctions: Analysis

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Francis Bacon, Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, oil on canvas, 1981.

This report on the Summer auctions 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 period of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic — which was only resolved by a wholesale restructuring of the international auction calendar — the top three houses finally presented hybrid live auctions of their most valuable works early this Summer.

Houses merged the modern and contemporary art categories and updated virtual platforms to draw global audience and bidding clients to a week of live-streamed marquee sales held around the world. Sotheby’s offered the first market test on June 29th;  it yielded $363.2 million. Phillips held a modest $41 million sale comprising mostly works by female and non-white artists. Finally, Christie’s staged a complex, four-auctioneer sale spanning their international sales centers that brought in $420.9 million.

The series of sales were successful enough to encourage Sotheby’s to quickly turn around a second sale, Rembrandt to Richter, to capitalize on the demand. That auction combined a smattering of Old Master works with modern and contemporary art to make $193 million in sales.

Each session proved global demand undiminished by the economic lag. The leading lots of the auctions staged in June and July were by Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell, Joan Miró and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The results from 2019 to 2020 is not a direct comparison due to the reformatted sales but key trends in artists’ markets are still apparent. In Spring 2019, more than $1.2 billion in contemporary art was sold in the New York day and evening sales. That was a rise of 6.7% over the previous year. Continue Reading

Van Rysselberghe, Klee, Magritte Lead June 2020 Paris Impressionist and Modern Sales: Analysis

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Moise Kisling. Femme au corsage blanc. Courtesy Christie’s.

This report on the Paris Impressionist and Modern Art market by Angelica Villa with data from Live Art Auction 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.)

Without the force of FIAC and La Bienniale Paris this season to attract global collectors, Christie’s and Sotheby’s faced a new challenge staging their Impressionist & Modern Art auctions in their French headquarters. The sales were lead this June by Van Rysselberghe, Klee, Magritte, Picabia and Picasso, placing works with buyers for prices as high €5.6 million to as low as €625,000.

The summer sales of Impressionist and Modern art in Paris saw an increase from the previous year—the two sessions, which came to €22.6 million total (excluding works on paper offered in a separate session) were up 23% from the €18.4 million total across the March 2019 auctions. The season’s top lots were by Belgian Neo-Impressionist, Theo van Rysselberghe and Swiss artist, Paul Klee.Continue Reading

Christie’s Has Richard Feigen Collection in May

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The dealer Richard Feigen has been quick to take on the auction houses in the press (over issues both serious and petty) but even quicker to go to them when selling his greatest treasures. Over the last decade he has auctioned, often taking risk off the table with various forms of guarantees, works by Max Beckmann, Orazio Gentilischi and J.M.W. Turner. These last two works were bought by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles for substantial sums.

At the height of his career, Feigen would make these kinds of museum sales directly himself without needing the pressure of underbidders to achieve his price. Over the years he sold works to more than a hundred museums, including the Getty, the Louvre and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The paintings were by a broad range of artists from Rembrandt to Jasper Johns to James Rosenquist. That Feigen turned to the auction houses in his late seventies and early eighties to achieve top dollar for the works he bought over a lifetime tells us more about the changing shape of the art market than it does about Feigen’s skill or stature.

Feigen likes to call himself a collector dressed up as a dealer but that’s just what dealers used to say to try to take the sting out the profits they were making off their clients, especially museums. Everyone likes to buy works that seem like they will never be sold. What makes Feigen different isn’t his acting like a collector but his being the last of the dealers who bought strategically and opportunistically believing that, over time, art would out perform money.

Feigen’s approach was born in the inflation-cursed seventies. He often contrasted the limited number of great works of art against the profligate printing of money. With that in mind, Feigen bought what he thought best across a wide range of styles, regions and time periods. Although his most significant holdings have now been liquidated, Feigen still has work that must be sold. Today, Christie’s announced several of those—including a $800k John Constable, a $3m Guercino and $4m Carraci—are going to be sold in early May. Here’s the auction house’s release:Continue Reading

Christie’s Sells £11.4m Leyden Drawing to Benefit Rugby School

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This drawing by Lucas van Leyden which measures a tiny 11 x 5 inches was just sold for £11.4m, an order of magnitude above its £1.5m estimate. Christie’s sale to benefit Rugby School brought in £14.79m. According to Christie’s, “the sale inspired widespread interest from across the globe with registered bidders from 33 countries across five continents. Over 40% of the lots were sold to or directly underbid by online bidders on Christie’s Live.

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