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Paris Contemporary Auction Analysis: Asian Artists, de Staël Dominate

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This Paris Spring 2018 Contemporary sales analysis is available to AMMpro subscribers. Subscribers get the first month free on monthly subscriptions. Feel free to cancel at any time before the month is up. Sign up for AMMpro here.

The Paris Contemporary art sales were punctuated by some dramatic sales that drove the overall performance far above expectations. You can see from market share chart (above) provided by our friends at Live Auction Art that both Sotheby's and Christie's were able to exceed their pre-sale estimates by a significant margin. In both cases, the totals were helped by the performance of a single lot.

For Christie's, that was Nicolas de Staël's Flowers which made €8.25m or more than twice the low estimate.  At Sotheby's, the big lot was Kazuo Shiraga's large and historically significant Takao which made more than four times the low estimate to reach €8.7m.

This analysis of the Spring 2018Paris Contemporary art sales results—including a look at market share by artist and a list of the most dynamic lots—is available to AMMpro subscribers. Subscribers get the first month free on monthly subscriptions. Feel free to cancel at any time before the month is up. Sign up for AMMpro here.

We will have a look at the historical sales numbers in Paris in another post. Here, let's look at the composition of the Paris Post-War sales. Artcurial had a number of modern works in their sale which we have set aside so we can look at the Paris Post-War and Contemporary market.

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De Staël Explodes in Paris Continuing Market Rise

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Nicolas de Stael, Flowers (3.5-5.5m EUR) €8.25m

Christie’s Evening sale of Contemporary art in Paris yesterday totaled €25.4m with a third of that value coming from Nicolas de Staël‘s Flowers which made €8.25m against an estimate of €3.5-5.5m. Other outperforming lots were Pierre Soulages‘s Peinture 227 x 306 cm, 2 mars 2009 which was estimated at €1-1.5m but made €2.4m; Kazuo Shiraga‘s Chikakusei Dokukakuryu, €1.87m; a small Joan Mitchell work that made €655k; and a Jean Dubuffet, Partition which hit €895k.

The day sale added another €9.33m to the total.

Sotheby’s Paris Sale Led By Zao Wou-ki & Shiraga

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It’s a been a couple of years since we’ve had a big Kazuo Shiraga price in the West. The most recent sales above $3m for the Gutai artist have been achieved in Hong Kong this year and three years ago. But the top three prices for the artist have come in Germany, New York and Paris. The last hosted the outright record at $5.3m four years ago at Sotheby’s. On June 6th in the Paris Art Contemporain Evening sale, Sotheby’s is offering Takao from 1959 with an estimate of €1.8 – 2.5m.

Also in the sale are several works by Zao Wou-ki, Jean Dubuffet, Hans Hartung and Nicolas de Staël. Here’s Sotheby’s take on their offerings:Continue Reading

Lalanne Furniture Sells for $2.3m in Paris Sale

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In the three-day, thousand-lot sale of designer Alberto Pinto’s stock, three lots by Claude Lalanne—with a combined high estimate of $500k—sold for a total of $2.3m.

The Bureau Croco by Claude Lalanne is the top lot of the entire sale and was sold on Tuesday evening for €847,500/£771,225/$1,118,700 after several minutes of intense bidding, involving 11 parties, becoming the fourth highest price for the artist. Two further lots by Lalanne realised also very strong results: a Tabouret Crococurule sold €439,500 and a Table Lotus et Singe was acquired for €463,500.

Man Ray’s Noire et Blanche (€1-1.5m) Offered at Christie’s France in November

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After a long torpor, the photography market has suddenly become a hotbed of activity. Into this building interest, Christie’s brings Man Ray’s Noire et Blanche estimated at €1m-1.5m. The well-known image of Kiki de Montparnasse was first published in the Paris edition of Vogue in 1926:

Christie’s France is pleased to announce that it will offer “Stripped Bare: Photographs from the Thomas Koerfer Collection,” comprising 73 lots and led by the emblematic Man Ray masterpiece, Noire et Blanche, formerly in the collection of Jacques Doucet, on November 9, while collectors are gathered for the Paris Photo Fair.

Thomas Koerfer is a highly-regarded film director, writer as well as producer, whose films include TheDeath of the Flea Circus Director, Henry’s Romance, The Passionate and Embers. From childhood Koerfer was surrounded by the art collection of his parents and in 1992 he established his own collection by concentrating on modern and contemporary photography, and some years later he added paintings and sculptures from the same era. The entire collection focuses on the body and human form as well as the various aspects of sensuality and sexuality and represents the most comprehensive and nuanced group of works on this theme. Ten years after starting to collect photography, Thomas Koerfer was elected President of the Board of the Foundation of the Fotomuseum Winterthur in 2002 and also became a member of the board of the Kunsthalle Zurich, a position he held for ten years. His collection was exhibited in 2007 at CO Berlin, followed by a show at the Kunsthaus Zurich in 2015.

Pinault’s Museum in Paris Bourse Unveils Round Exhibition Space and Prospective 2019 Opening Date

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Vogue has the details on François Pinault’s museum in the former Paris Bourse that now has a plan and an opening date. All it lacks is programming:

  • In addition to preserving several unique features, such as the immense 1800s ironwork, the glass cupola—the world’s first such structure—and a double-helix stairway, its turn-of-the-century woodwork will be reinstated. The new museum will include 3,000 square meters of exhibition space; its five-floor layout features a 300-seat basement auditorium and a restaurant on the top floor. Ando said that he was inspired by the circular building to reinforce the idea of a “circle within a perfect circle” to create “an epicenter of art in Paris.”

Pinault Presents Future Museum in Paris (Vogue)

Christie’s Announces €30m Prat Collection for FIAC in Paris

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jim Crow, 1986. (Est on request)

Auctions and art fairs are being paired together like never before. Now Christie’s Paris is holding a single-owner sale the weekend of FIAC in Paris this October:

Christie’s is honoured to announce the sale of the collection of Jean-François (who died in 2011) and Marie-Aline Prat on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October 2017, during the week long Paris international contemporary art fair, FIAC. Comprising more than 200 works, this exceptional collection is a testimony to almost half a century of a passion shared by an inseparable couple, united by the same passion for modern, post-war and contemporary art. Including some of the most important international figures of the 20th century, such as Jean- Michel Basquiat, Sigmar Polke, Lucio Fontana and Robert Ryman, the collection also highlights the Prats’ taste for French artists like Jean Dubuffet, Yves Klein, Simon Hantaï and Martin Barré. Estimated in the region of €30,000,000 to 40,000,000, this auction will be divided into two sessions (evening and day sales) with a preview exhibition from 14 to 21 October at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild (11, rue Berryer 75008, Paris).

Paris Contemporary Results Analysis

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The full analysis of the Paris Contemporary art sales—including which artists's markets are surging—is available to AMMpro subscribers. 

The Paris Contemporary sales are not a major event in the international circuit of art auctions. Even though the sales at Sotheby's and Christie's are conducted in Day and Evening events, the works on offer and artists who predominate are secondary players. This isn't an insult to the French or to Paris. The sales reflect a specific taste and feature the kinds of works that connoisseurs, dealers and other value-seekers are looking for.

Moreover, the current market continues to be more about discovering over-looked historical masters whose work will increase in value as time goes on. For that kind of buying, Paris is a playground of value. This last sales cycle illustrated that vividly. The top lot of the week was a world record price for a 1960s work by Pierre Soulages. The work was owned by Soulages's American dealer Sam Kootz which only added to provenance. the €6.2m price reflected that.

There's more going on these results than a single work with good provenance. Soulages had four of the top ten prices in Paris. Nicolas de Stael had three of the top ten prices. Seven of the top ten lots were sold at prices over the estimate range reflecting strong bidding and persistent competition. Only two works sold within estimates and one lot required a compromise from the consignor to get a transaction.

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