Art Market Musings with Katharine Albritton

Exciting news from GEISAI #11! The Jury has been announced! A very international mix made up of

Jack Bankowsky, editor-at-large of Artforum;

Alison Gingeras, chief curator the François Pinault Collection;

Carol Yinghua Lu, art writer and private curator;

Philippe Ségalot, art advisor of Giraud.Pissarro.Ségalot fame; and

Marc-Olivier Wahler, director of the Palais de Tokyo.

This is an incredibly impressive list of names from all around the art world. Museums, private collections, writers, advisors - very nicely put together. Really bringing an international viewpoint to GEISAI this year, and thereby validating the art at the festival as art ‘worthy’ of the international scene. I’m looking forward to seeing who the jurors pick out of the crowd on 14 September.

Also, GEISAI has launched its own youtube channel. So head on over there to check out clips from previous GEISAI, as well as videos of meetings about the upcoming festival and interviews with Murakami and Ken Chu, who will be performing this year. Sadly, there are no English translations or subtitles up yet.

And yet one more NYTimes article, this one about art services companies who provide storage, shipping, and consulting for showing. Let’s just hope these companies have learned from the Momart Fire in 2004 and take care to prevent against fire and negligence.

What I found very interesting about the article, though, was that it’s filed under the Real Estate section, not the arts section. Someone needs to let the Times know that they need an art market section.

Another interesting article from the NYTimes about auctions by Park West aboard cruises:

“When most people think of art auctions, they think of Christie’s or Sotheby’s in New York or London, not a cruise ship. But over the last two decades, auctioning “fine art” on cruises, often to first-time bidders who have never met a reserve or inspected a provenance, has become big business.”

Strange auction behavior and stranger prices.  Misrepresentation does happen, even with well-known auction houses and dealers (though, not always consciously).  Once again, dear readers, do not buy something for such high prices if you have not had the opportunity to do some research on it or to contact a knowledgeable professional.  It’s just not worth it.

Also, sorry for the absence and the simple regurgitation of an article rather than a commentary on it.  It’s been a long week and it’s not nearly over.  Off to work some more on the dissertation.

Just wanted to point you all towards an interesting article from the NYTimes by Landon Thomas where he discusses recent foreign investment in America and (briefly) links the strength of the art market to foreign investment:

“While the Chrysler Building and other assets like art may bring a form of prestige, they also appear to be holding their value better than financial institutions and the broader stock market.

In the art market, this relative strength has been tied to foreign buying. Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian steel magnate, recently bought the sculpture “Hanging Heart” by Jeff Koons for $23 million. In another trophy purchase, a Russian fertilizer billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought Donald Trump’s Palm Beach mansion for about $100 million.”

Enjoy.

It’s that time of year in London - time for endless summer rain and sales of Old Master paintings and drawings.  Christie’s held their Old Master evening sale on Tuesday 8 July, while Sotheby’s sale was last evening.

Last night’s sale at Sotheby’s reaped £51.5m ($101.5m), with 76.7% of the 91 lots selling.  According to the press release, 58% of those lots sold over their high-end estimate.

Christie’s didn’t manage to bring quite as much money in on Tuesday night, but then they also sold a much smaller number of paintings with only 48 lots offered.  Still, only 31 of those lots sold, making the sale total £24.1m ($47.5m).  However, Christie’s did have a re-discovered French masterpiece by Jean-Antoine Watteau,  La Surprise, the location of which has been unknown for nearly 200 years and the painting was presumed destroyed.  The Watteau ended up selling to an anonymous buyer for £12.4m ($24.4m), well above it’s estimate of £3m - £5m.  It seems the previous record for a work by Watteau at auction was established when Le conteur sold at Christie’s London on 13 December 2000 for £2.4m.  It also was a record for a French Old Master at auction.

Watteau's La Surprise, sold at Christie's London

At the moment, I don’t have the information on the breakdown of buyers at Christie’s, but I do know that 42% of the buyers at Sotheby’s were British, 35% other European, and 16% American.  An interesting mix of numbers.  Good to see that the Old Master market is still going strong.

Well, after another long day of writing about the Japanese art market, I can really think of nothing other than Murakami’s business ingenuity and bijutsu clubs (notoriously closed dealers’ clubs).  So, I bring you something I threw together a while ago and feel is informative for those who know very little about the Japanese contemporary art scene.  Hope it informs.  Expect more on the Japanese market soon.

Right now is a truly exciting time for the Japanese art market – especially for up and coming artists who are looking for a big break at home or abroad. Thanks to more established artists, the whole world is finally taking note of contemporary Japanese art, thereby giving unknown artists a better platform for their work.

Most of this newfound publicity is really down to Takashi Murakami. His ingenuity and business savvy have allowed him to completely revamp the Japanese market in Japan and across the globe. Murakami has said that there no reliable contemporary art market in Japan when he first started out and he has sought to change that so that artists aren’t forced to leave Japan in order to make a name for themselves as he and many others had to do.

Luckily things have changed. Galleries have cropped up all over Tokyo, many looking for cutting edge and new artists. There has also been a recent proliferation of auction houses which host open auctions in Japan. Auctions that are open to the public are essential to the growth of an art market as they help make the market more transparent, meaning buyers will be more willing to invest in the market. More buyers means more chances for new artists to sell their works. And, as Murakami and Yoshimoto Nara’s works command millions of dollars abroad, foreign collectors are also looking for new talent in Japanese art. At the moment, Rei Sato has a solo show in the Lehmann Maupin gallery in New York – her show opened right after a solo show for the more established artist Mr. closed – and Chiho Aoshima is having articles written about her and her work in English-language magazines. Plus, the focus of the Paris Photo fair this year is Japan, with Japanese artists and galleries taking center stage.

And, this year Murakami has brought back not only GEISAI, his one-day massive art fair, but also Museum GEISAI, two great ways for unrepresented artists to show and sell their work (check out the website to find out how to apply for a booth for GEISAI #11 in September: http://www.geisai11.us/). This year also marked the inaugural year for the 101 Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair, which featured quite a few young, local dealers – always a great thing to see at art fairs. Like open auctions, art fairs encourage buyers in a market and the recent spate of art fairs in Tokyo will only grow as the market grows.

It definitely is an exciting time for Japanese artists both at home and abroad. There are so many opportunities opening up for them as the Japanese art market takes on an international aspect. Soon enough, these avant-garde artists will be established both in Japan and around the world.

Once again, sorry for the late update.  I’ve been working on my dissertation all week and, after an intensive day of reading and writing about art markets and entering auction data into a spreadsheet, it’s a bit hard to concentrate enough to talk about art market news not relating to the Japanese market.

So, the Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening sale that occurred last week on 1 July.  Not surprisingly, the beautiful yet small Study for the Head of George Dyer, 1967, by Francis Bacon exceeded the £8m - £10m estimate (that was available on request) to sell for £13.8m ($27.5m).  Because it is such a small (14 in x 12 in) painting and a study, I wasn’t expecting a crazy price like Abramovich paid for the large Triptych.  However, with the beautiful colors and movement and intimacy and strong brush strokes, I had no doubt that it would go over estimate.

Study for the Head of George Dyer by Francis Bacon

I was, however, surprised to see how well Murakami’s work did at the sale.  DOB Flower, 2000, sold for £825,250 ($1.6m).  Mushroom-1, 2000, went for £481,250 ($959,709) and a statue of his character Kiki from a 2000 edition of 5 came in at £361,250 ($720,405).  While Kiki came in underestimate, the two paintings surpassed their high-end estimates.  I’m surprised by this because they’re very impersonal Murakamis, I haven’t researched them but I assume they were produced in the studio.  However, they did both come through Galerie Perrotin in Paris where they were exhibited in 2001.  Also, they both show iconic characters often produced by Murakami.  Still, despite my surprise, I’m happy - helps me in proving my dissertation hypothesis!

DOB Flower by Takashi Murakami

The U2 Basquiat did alright, selling for £5.1m ($10.2m), under the high-end estimate of £6m, but still a nice little packet for the band to split.

Basquiat owned by U2 on display at Sotheby\

And Gormley’s maquette for Angel of the North, 1996, sold for £2.3m ($4.6m), well above the £600,000 - £800,00 estimate.

The sale total was £94.7m ($188.9m), just exceeding the pre-estimate of £92.6m.   It does seem to be a bit of a bear market at the moment.  But I’m not yet sure how much of this is a result of the overall financial situation, or how much of this is just contemporary art prices re-adjusting themselves from the excessive highs they have been at lately.  I’m rather inclined to think it’s simply a bit of both.

NB - all sale results include Buyer’s Premium

Christie’s Post-war & Contemporary Evening Sale occurred at King’s Street last night.  The 58 lots achieved a sale total of £86.2m ($172.3m), just above the pre-sale low estimate of £80m.  Only 83% of the lots sold.

The most expensive lot of the night was a set of three self-portrait studies by Francis Bacon, 1975, that went for £17.3m ($34.5m).  Jeff Koon’s monumental Balloon Flower (Magenta), which has been on display in St. James’ Square down the street from Christie’s as it was too large to be in the auction house, sold barely above estimate for £12.9m ($25.6m) - although that was a world auction record price for Koons.  And Lucien Freud’s Naked Portrait with Reflection, 1980, went for only £11.8m ($23.4m) compared to its pre-sale estimate of £15m.

14 of the lots last night had guarantees on them - minimum prices the auction house agrees to pay the seller.  If the sale price is higher than the guarantee, the consignor and house usually come to an agreement to split the excess.  If the guaranteed work fails to sell, the auction house (or a guarantor) will pay for the lot outright and own it.

Many art market professionals noted that Christie’s estimates for last night were a bit on the high side and, while there is nothing wrong with the market, buyers won’t buy when prices look high.  So, a Fontana and a Hirst, among others, failed to sell last night.

The Morning and Afternoon sales are today.

For those of you who don’t read every arts section you come across, you may not yet have heard that Sotheby’s will be auctioning new works by Damien Hirst, consigned directly from the artist to the auction house.

This might not seem unusual to some. Afterall, Hirst’s works come up for sale at auction all the time. However, in the art market, the sale of works of art tend to follow a precise pattern. The art market is divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. The primary sector involves dealers selling new works on behalf of artists. The secondary sector involves dealers selling works that are no longer “new” (private treaty sales between individual collectors also fit into this secondary sector). And the tertiary sector is made up of the auction houses who sell “old” works at auction to the public. Works coming to auction may have remained in the same collection since they were first sold, but, outside of charity auctions, it is a unknown concept to hear of an artist consigning his own works to auction.

Personally, I don’t think the auction will have any adverse effects on Hirst, his works, or his prices. Hirst is obviously an established artist. At 43 years old and one of the biggest names from the “Young British Artists” movement, Hirst is simply taking a step for his career that will offer more publicity and hopefully bigger returns.

However, I do worry that young artists who are currently the “hot” thing to buy will get the wrong idea. The reason behind an artist having a dealer is not to sell paintings. It’s to build a lasting relationship that can see both the artist and the dealer through tough times. A good artist/dealer relationship can survive just about anything, and both benefit from it in the end. While I don’t think the big name auction houses will choose just anyone to have a “solo” auction, I do worry that such auctions might cause young artists to lose sight of the importance of dealers.

That said, go for it, Damien. You never fail to disappoint when it comes to your publicity and sales strategies (and you’re always good for a laugh). Also, as one art market specialist commented, Damien has always had a bit of an open marriage with his dealers. In fact, Gagosian released a statement saying, “As Damien’s long-term gallery, we’ve come to expect the unexpected. He can certainly count on us to be in the room with paddle in hand.”

The Damien Hirst sale at Sotheby’s will occur at Sotheby’s London on 15 September. Entitled “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”, the auction will include paintings, cabinets, sketches and “The Golden Calf” - one of Hirst’s cows ‘preserved’ in formaldehyde which includes a solid gold halo and 18k casts on its horns and hooves.

So sorry for the late update.  I’m really hoping things will settle down soon and I can get back to updating daily.

So, the sale.  Well, I have to eat my words.  I said I thought the £7m - £10m estimate on the Severini was a bit high.  It ended up selling for £15m ($29.9m).

Monet’s Plage à Trouville went for £7.7m ($15.4m), just over the low-end estimate of £7m.  The Dufy I loved, Le Harve, 14 Juillet, ended up selling for £1.6m ($3m), above it’s £900,000 - £1.2m estimate.

The sale total was £102.2m ($203.8m).  Yes, that’s much lower than Christie’s total, but not bad considering the Sotheby’s sale lacked the masterpieces from the Miller Collection that Christie’s managed to secure.