Damien Hirst & Sotheby’s

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.

Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Evening Sale – London

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.

Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale – London

The entire Impressionist and Modern evening sale was supposed to bring in more than £90m for Christie’s. The works being sold from the Miller collection were supposed to bring in more than £40m. Well, the Monet water lilies from the Miller collection alone managed to do that. Going for £40.9m ($80.5m), Le bassin aux nymphéas, 1919, well exceeded it’s £18m – £24m estimate and set an artist record for Monet. It is now the second most expensive painting sold at a European auction. Tania Buckwell Pos, director of AMI arts consultancy, bought the painting from the front row of the saleroom while on the phone with a client. She declined to give her client’s name or nationality.

I think the demand for this work of art has proved that the Impressionist market is far from dead. For great works, collectors will be willing to part with large sums of money.

To get the Monet, Ms. Buckwell Pos outbid Brett Gorby, a specialist in contemporary art at Christie’s New York, who was also on the phone. However, Mr. Gorby was the successful bidder for Degas’ Danseuses à la barre, which sold at £13.5m ($26.5m), more than doubling its high estimate of £6m.

The early fauvist portrait by Matisse, La Pudeur (L’italienne), 1906, failed to reach its estimate of £3m – £4m, selling for only £2.5m ($4.9m). Still, the sale did incredibly well overall, achieving £144.4m ($284.5m) for Christie’s, the highest ever for a European auction.

Christie’s Imps&Mods Press Call

Friday morning I was at Christie’s King Street to view the exhibition for their Impressionist & Modern Sale that will be held tomorrow evening at 7 pm. The works they have in this sale are absolutely stunning. They’re offering 17 works from the collection of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller, one of the most important collections of Impressionist and modern art ever. Mr. Miller was an industrialist (from Columbus, Indiana) and, along with his wife, he was a philanthropist and patron of the arts and architecture. The 17 works are expected to bring in more than £40m ($80m).

The Miller collection includes one of the best Monets I have ever seen outside of a museum. Le Basin aux nympéas, 1919, is a large, rectangular painting of Monet’s beloved water lilies. According to Christie’s press release, it is one of a set of four paintings that were released by the artist during his lifetime. Of the other paintings, one is in a private collection, one is at the Met, and another was divided. It’s a gorgeous painting, just the type of Monet that people think of when they envision a Monet, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it performs. The estimate is £18m – £24m. I’ll let you know how it does.

They also have a monumental Henry Moore bronze from the Miller collection up for sale. Draped Reclining Woman, 1957/58, is number 5 of an edition of 6, with all the other editions in public collections. With an estimate of £2.5m – £3.5m, I’m pretty sure collectors will be clambering for it (or at least museums will be).

Degas’s Danseuses à la barre, circa 1880, is also in the sale.  Pastel, gouache, and charcoal on paper, it’s a lovely piece where one can literally trace a single crayon mark along the paper.  As with the Miller Monet, it’s exactly what one thinks of when envisioning a scene of Degas’ ballet dancers during practice.  Originally owned by the Havemeyers (American collectors of Degas during his life) and with an estimate of £4m – £6m, I think it will do very well.

There’s a lovely fauvist portrait by Matisse from 1906.  La Pudeur (L’Italienne), is fantastically colorful and bold.  Bought by Sarah Stein (sister-in-law of Gertrude and Leo and a great patron of Matisse) during Matisse’s life and with a rather complete provenance, the painting is estimated at £3m – £4m.

I’m looking forward to watching to sale, and I’ll let you all know how it goes.  All photos courtesy of Christie’s.

Sotheby’s Press Call

I was at Sotheby’s yesterday morning for yet another press call. This one was “to mark the start of £500 million selling season”. Modern, Impressionist, and Contemporary works were all on display. The Impressionist & Modern evening sale will be 25 June at 7 pm and the Contemporary evening sale is scheduled for 1 July at 7 pm.

Some of the highlights of the exhibition:

-Gormley’s life size maquette of Angel of the North (est£600,000 – £800,000) was the darling of the photographers. An edition of 5, it seems all are in the hands of private owners.

-Severini’s Danseuse takes the front cover of the Imps&Mods catalogue in all its pastel glory. It has a strong geometric presence and looks like it owes much to German expressionism. However, I just can’t get over the fact that it looks like it should be hanging in a five year old girl’s room. As a girl who always had pink walls in her bedroom, I should know. Plus, I think the estimate is a little high at £7m-£10m.

-A few Giacometti sculptures – maybe hoping for Abramovich wannabes?

-There’s a Monet beach-scene up that Sotheby’s is really promoting. It’s a nice work, but it was recently bought-in in New York and it’s by no means outstanding. Sad considering Christie’s has a lovely Monet for their Imps&Mods sale that I’m really looking forward to seeing.

-Raoul Dufy’s Le Havre -14 Juillet was by far my favorite piece of the Imps&Mods followed closely by Kandinsky’s Park von St. Cloud – mit reiter. Both lovely pieces.

-The band U2 is selling a Basquiat that they bought collectively in 1989. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Basquiat (probably because I’m not actually old enough to remember his work being new and exciting), but this painting is a fabulous one. According to Alex Branczik, deputy director of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Department, the band bought the painting together in 1989 as a sort of “insurance policy” (though, as Alex said, after Joshua Tree they didn’t really need it). Apparently Adam Clayton is the collector of the group and the one who convinced the other three to invest in the painting. Well done, Adam.

-Three Murakamis are in the contemporary sale – a DOB Flower and a Mushrooms paintings. and also a Kiki sculpture. Not overly exciting, but nice to see my golden man back in the evening sales.

-The lovely Study for the Head of George Dyer is in the sale. It was a joy to be able to see it again. Such a fantastic painting. I’ve never been a huge Bacon fan (not that I don’t love his compositions/style/colors, but they really just don’t do much for me aesthetically) but this portrait is absolutely gorgeous. While the estimate is upon request, it seems Sotheby’s is banking on £8m-£10m. There’s another Bacon in the sale as well, Figure Turning. Not nearly as nice as the portrait, but a really great composition of movement and very Bacon.

Image courtesy of Sothebys.com.

-Some older Gilbert and George silver prints. Really lovely ones, none of their recent “we’re obviously doing this to try and shock you, aren’t you so shocked?” work.

Basically, they have some really great works lined up for the Contemporary sale, and a few strong ones in the smaller Impressionist & Modern sale. I’m looking forward to being in the saleroom those nights.

Update to Art Market Musings Blog

Just wanted to point out that I have now installed an RSS feed link on the sidebar (at the bottom) thanks to a kind reader who pointed out that I had yet to do so.  I’m hoping to add some more ways to feed soon, so you don’t have to physically visit to the page every day to check for updates.  No promises on a time frame, though, as I’m currently writing this from the office where things are a bit crazy.  That’s what happens when everything in the art market world has been moved around to accomodate Euro 2008 (not that I’m complaining, I like having the ability to watch the matches in the evening).

Corporate Sponsorship in the Art Market

I would like to start by apologizing for the irregularity of posts this past week. I have family visiting, so my time has not been my own, even at such an exciting time in the art market.

I want to write a bit today on corporate sponsorship in the realm of the art market. This is most likely a topic I’ll come back to again and again, as it’s a big issue in the art world.

This weekend I was lucky enough to be able to attend the 5th annual Althorp Literary Festival at Althorp House, home of Earl Spencer. Sotheby’s sponsored the event. While I am extremely grateful the event managed to find such a corporate sponsor in order to run, I was actually a bit surprised at the hands-off attitude of Sotheby’s concerning the festival. I did not run into anyone from Sotheby’s at the festival and there were no brochures or flyers, not even a poster listing the next sales of books and manuscripts.

Now, I realize Sotheby’s is a strong brand name. Placed in the right circumstances, it can remind those who already know it that it exists without much fanfare. And there were certainly some attendees this weekend who know Sotheby’s already and probably took note of the sponsorship with a pleased eye and a mental note to keep Sotheby’s in mind for any appraisals or auctions in the future. However, there were some attendees who seemed to not have much of a background with Sotheby’s. Oh, they probably know it’s an auction house and might know it’s located on Bond Street, but they might stop thinking about it there. I know Sotheby’s is trying to deal with only the best of the best at the moment, but you never do know who has what. Some of those who don’t know Sotheby’s might just have the income to spend at auctions. They might have some family heirlooms they’re looking to sell. And, at a literary festival, they may well be book collectors who would be interested in at least attending an exhibition for a manuscript and book sale. Once again, this was a literary festival at a stately home where most of the attendees were referring to Earl Spencer by his given name – the “right sort of people” for Sotheby’s were in attendance.

This I think, is where Sotheby’s has it wrong. You can let your name do the talking for you, but if someone doesn’t know your name, it won’t help much. Most people are not curious enough to do their own research. And simply because someone doesn’t know your name does not mean they are not worthy to do business with. You can’t judge your unknown potential clientèle until you get to know them.

I’m not saying Sotheby’s needed to set up a circus tent and perform tricks for the audience at the literary festival. However, a person or two from the Corporate Sponsorship department would have been nice. Maybe an “Art Tour” led by a Sotheby’s specialist around the fantastic Lely and Knoller portraits hanging all around Althorp. Perhaps someone from Sotheby’s could have introduced the speakers. Certainly they could have at least had an informational desk with brochures and such. Such actions would definitely gain the attention of those who know less about Sotheby’s, perhaps inciting them to make a mental note about the auction house.

I just hope that if anyone from the Corporate Sponsorship department at Sotheby’s is reading this, they give me a call to discuss future Althorp Literary Festivals. I am, afterall, their target audience and know a thing or two about marketing to myself.

The Library at Althorp.  Photo courtesy of Althorp.com

The kids/markets are alright…

Well, the art market hasn’t crashed yet. I returned to Olympia today and I’m happy to say it was much more active. There were many more people (quite a few checking out one of my favorite antique jewelers) and a few little red dots here and there. The dealers also seemed to be in better sorts, more open to chatting and showing off their wares than they were a few days ago.

I’m still amazed by some of the stalls this year. There are those that are completely self-contained and a bit like tiny stores. Pelham’s was overwhelming, outshining their stall at TEFAF. Olympia seems to be changing, bringing in the larger dealers and looking for big spenders. It’ll be interesting to see how the weekend goes.

Art Market Indicator?

While many people have been saying the art market is still strong and buoyant, many have also said the art market is about ready for a bursting of the bubble. I generally believe that there will always be interest and investment for the top 10% of any viable market. Afterall, there is more money in the world than ever before and those who hold the most money hold more than ever before. As with most luxury goods, the best art will always have a buyer. Even more so, since art has an aesthetic value outside of the raw materials, and therefore extra benefits can be gained from works of art outside of monetary gains. However, this says nothing about the other 90% of the art market that might not be quite so blue-chip.

That’s why I was a bit worried to find that the Olympia Art & Antiques Fair was absolutely deserted today when I was there. Granted, I only popped in for a short look and it was during lunchtime on a weekday. Also, the fair has already been running for 5 days. But still, the place was pretty dead and it is running until 15 June.  I know from my time there that TEFAF was packed and the antiques stalls were overrun with customers.  So the top customers are interested and buying.  Yet Olympia, not quite as high profile as TEFAF, seemed slow.  Let’s hope it was simply the fact that I made it around lunch time.  Afterall, the Form Art and Design Fair at Olympia earlier this spring was pretty hopping on a weekday.  I should be able to make it to Olympia one more time before it closes, so I shall update on the situation then.

Art Basel 39: Wrap Up

Once again, I apologize for not having updated over the weekend. There are some places in this world where internet does not exist, the house I stayed at for the weekend being one of them.

So, a summary of the eventful week in Basel:

• American buyers were not prevalent thanks to the weak dollar. However, dealers commented on the number of Russian buyers. And American dealers reported selling to more Europeans thanks to the lack of Americans.
• Roman Abramovich purchased a Giacometti bronze entitle “Femme de Venise I” (1956) for $14 million from Krugier.
• Dealers brought good quality pieces to show and reported that buyers were interested in blue-chip artists.
• As auction prices soar, many collectors commented on the reasonable prices in the primary market.
• Works did not fly off the walls as soon as the vernissage opened, as has been the trend for the past few years. Instead, sales were paced and carefully considered, though still strong.
• The print galleries reported good sales, especially those who branched out into editioned sculptures.
• Brad Pitt dropped close to $1 million at Design Miami/Basel, with Mr. Abramovich following close behind. The two were seen chatting in the VIP lounge of the fair. In other star news, Sofia Coppola and Owen Wilson were at the vernissage of Art Basel 39.
• Takashi Murakami was spotted all around Basel in the limited time he was there. From Art Unlimited at the main fair to the Volta Fair to a dinner held in his honor. He was particularly interested in adding to his contemporary art collection, mentioning an interest in works by Anselm Reyle and German art of the 1980s.