Art Market Monitor

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More Neuberger Berman Wrap Up

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There’s an inexhaustible fascination with the Lehman Brothers connection to the Neuberger Berman Collection sale. Here, the Master, Judd Tully, offers a cogent explanation for why some works were allowed to sell well below their estimate range

Most likely, the reserves were pegged to a “global reserve” formula, so one over-achieving lot could compensate for an underperforming one, like the Currin. That formula also saved Richard Prince’s untitled 2003 joke painting, acquired in the year it was made from Barbara Gladstone Gallery, that sold to a telephone bidder for just $212,500 on a $300-400,000 estimate. […] John Currin’s dour “Shakespeare Actress” from 1991 (est. $500-700,000), sold for a scant $362,500. […]

Still, that global formula could not save every underperforming lot. Damien Hirst’s uncharacteristic 1993 steel cupboard of ceramic pots, “We’ve got Style (The Vessel Collection-Blue /Green),” estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, died without a single bid. The sculpture was acquired from London’s White Cube gallery in 1994.

PBS’s Paul Solman is fixated on the every dollar and dumbfounded by fluctuating prices in this series of pre- and post-sale reports:

Lehman Brothers Art Takes $12.3 Million at Sotheby’s, Though Hirst Fails (ArtInfo.com)

Neuberger Berman Wrap Up

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The $12.3m Neuberger Berman sale attracted a lot of attention. Here’s what the press had to say in conclusion:

Reuters:

“While the Lehman name certainly attracted a great deal of attention, the people who bid today participated because they knew it was good art,” said Tobias Meyer

Lindsay Pollock found a former Lehman banker who bid up a low-value Vik Muniz (was it piece she fondly gazed at over long hours in the office and wanted for sentimental reasons?) and an irony-soaked art adviser:

A former Lehman investment banker who declined to identify herself came in pursuit of a print by artist Vik Muniz, lured in part by the Lehman link. Estimated to sell for up to $8,000, Muniz’s 1998 silver gelatin print of a tree, from an edition of five, sold for $23,750, leaving the ex-Lehman banker outbid. Continue Reading

Neuberger Berman = $12.277m

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Sotheby’s sold 83% of the 142 lots offered from the Neuberger Berman collection. The 118 lots that sold produced a number of artist records for the young talents with thinly traded markets. At least Five of the top 10 works went to collectors — there might have been more because the remainder preferred to be anonymous — suggesting that there is still a strong body of Contemporary art collectors chasing new art. (Few experts would have claimed that there was A+ work in the sale. That isn’t a slap at Neuberger’s curators.) (results on full post)Continue Reading

Lehman Times Art Market

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We saw the strong results for Lehman Brothers art holdings when they were auctioned in Philadelphia. Now Neuberger Berman’s art collection (Neuberger was owned by Lehman Brothers) is expected to be approved for sale in September at Sotheby’s, according to Carol Vogel:

The Sotheby’s auction will include more than 400 works, many bought in the early 1990s. “It’s almost as if they had a crystal ball,” said Gabriela Palmieri, a contemporary art expert at Sotheby’s in New York. Citing Mr. Currin, Mark Grotjahn and Julie Mehretu as examples, she said, “These artists were neither well known nor did they enjoy the celebrity status they do today.”Continue Reading

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