KAZIMIR MALEVICH Suprematist Composition, 1916 Oil on canvas, 34 7/8 by 28 inches Estimate in the region of $60 million, sold for $60,002,500 (£36,660,659)
The Art Market - Stable and Knowledgeable
The art market is in good health and there is much to be optimistic
about contrary to recent gloomy comments in the media. Treating the
market as a single entity simply does not make sense. Much of what has
been written implies that there is one single market for art and
antiques whereas in reality there are many different sectors each with
its own buyers and sellers and, perhaps more importantly, with varying
recent histories.
A thorough analysis of the current market shows that many sectors are
performing strongly and consistently at a time when property prices have
fallen substantially and the stock market has been on a roller coaster
ride with more downs than ups. In October as the first pessimistic
headlines began to emerge, the London auctions of 20th century Italian
art produced extremely good results that went almost entirely unnoticed.
Sotheby's sold 88.5% of its lots for more than £13.5 million (US$23.6
million) breaking four artists' records. It was the second highest total
ever for a sale in this category at the auction house in London and was
94.2% sold by value. Christie's did slightly less well but almost 70% of
its weaker line-up found buyers with business totalling £11 million
(US$19.2 million). It was a classic example of how well-curated sales in
a niche market that has grown steadily but sensibly over the past decade
can succeed.
The good results for artists like Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni and
Giorgio Morandi were not one-offs in a single sector of the market.
Chinese works of art have also done well recently with Christie's London
sale on 4 November totalling £5.3 million (US$8.3 million) which was 87%
sold by value. A rare and magnificent Western Han jade belt hook
estimated at £100,000 to £150,000 fetched a record £825,250 (US$1.3
million). At the same time leading dealers in the annual Asian Art in London
event, which attracts collectors from all over the world, also
had reason to smile. Giuseppe Eskenazi sold 11 of the 16 works within
days of his show Chinese Ceramics and Stone Sculpture opening. Ben
Janssens sold three-quarters of his exhibition including a Ming dynasty
imperial lacquer brush to a private collection in the UK for about
£50,000 and an 18th century lacquer box with nine dragons to an American
private buyer for in the region of £40,000.
The brush was not only rare but had not been on the market for 40 years
and had an excellent provenance having once been in the collection of
Mrs Walter Sedgwick. Recent sales have shown just how important
provenance is, even in sectors of the market that have been less
fashionable in the past few years, and single owner sales have been
performing strongly. On 19 November Sotheby's in London offered 242
British pictures from the collection of the late Sir David and Lady
Scott. Although some are Modern British pictures, which have done very
well in recent times, the core of 150 paintings are from the currently
less popular Victorian era. Sotheby's rightly stressed thei provenance,
their freshness to the market and the fact that the Scott had
tremendously good taste and in the middle of what has been described as
the biggest world recession since the Great Crash of 1929, 87.6% of the
lots sold fo £4.6 million (US$6.9 million). Not only were 14 new
artists' records established but 56.6% of the works sold for above their
high pre-sale estimate. At least fou bidders competed for the most
expensive picture of the sale No Walk Today by Sophie Anderson,
which fetched more than £1 million (US$1.5 million).
Furniture and traditional antiques have also sometimes been described as
unfashionable but combine top quality with good provenance and there is
no shortage of buyers. Two of the greatest dealers in the furniture
business in England, Hotspur and Jeremy, recently decided to auction
their stock. The sale of 178 of their finest pieces at Christie's on 20
November produced a packed saleroom encouraged by sensible estimates
with 85% of the lots selling for a total of £4.4 million (US$6.5
million). While the names of two companies that had become institutions
in the antiques world were an undoubted draw even anonymous sales of
private collections will do well if the quality is right. The next day
Christie's disposed of the contents of an unnamed London town house for
almost £2 million (US$2.9 million) in an auction that was 81% sold by
lot and 86% by value. Eight of the ten most expensive pieces exceeded
their pre-sale high estimates with a George II giltwood mirror
attributed to Matthias Lock and estimated at £80,000 to £120,000 being
bought by a British dealer for £169,250 (US$250,659). House sales are
popular and when Christie's sold art and antiques from two properties
Pomfret House and Tetworth Hall at its South Kensington saleroom on 5
November 92% of the lots sold for almost £1.2 million (US$1.8 million)
with a Philip Reinagle painting of a grouse fetching twice as much as
expected. Other areas of the market that have done well recently are
tribal art and watches, two very different sectors which both appeal
strongly to collectors. The strength of the former was demonstrated by
the sale of African and Oceanic Art from the collection of Frieda and
Milton Rosenthal at Sotheby's in New York on 14 November. This was the
most important collection of such works to be offered for sale in New
York in 40 years and the Rosenthal pieces pushed aside pre-sale
estimates as American and European collectors and dealers competed for
them. The sale total was US$10.8 million (£7.3 million), which was 97.3%
sold by value, and among the records was the US$4 million (£2.7 million)
paid for a stunning Senufo sculpture The Rosenthal Primordial Couple.
Christie's held a successful sale of watches in Geneva on 17 November
which totalled US$15.1 million and was 88% sold by value. Bidders from
Europe, Asia and North America vied for a selection of watches that was
both new to the market and realistically estimated. A European
collector paid a record US$805,932 (£547,843) for a Patek Philippe watch
made in 1963 for Tiffany & Co.
The market for top quality works is still strong whether it be for
watches, tribal sculpture or great paintings. The recent major auctions
at Sotheby's and Christie's in New York totalled more than US$775.7
million in less than a fortnight. In Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and
Modern Art on 3 November three hugely important paintings sold for
record prices. Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist Composition, an iconic
example of early 20th century avant-garde art, fetched US$60 million
(£36.6 million), Edvard Munch's rare masterpiece Vampire went to an
American private buyer for US$38.1 million (£23.3 million) and Danseuse au Repos by Edgar Degas sold for US$37 million (£22.6
million). At Christie's a few days later Juan Gris's Cubist still life
Livres, Pipe et Verres also set a new record when it fetched
US$20.8 million (£13.1 million).
What the New York sales also demonstrated is that art is still sold at a
profit. When the American collector Donald L. Bryant Junior bought
Philip Guston's Beggar's Joys at Christie's in New York in 1996 he paid
a record US$1.7 million. Since then prices for Guston have soared and at
Sotheby's Contemporary Art auction on 11 November the picture once again
broke the record selling to an American buyer for US$10.1 million (£6.5
million). Although the price was less than Sotheby's estimate it
represented a huge return on Mr Bryant's investment, particularly as the
auction house had guaranteed the picture for a figure believed to be
well above the sale price. New York real estate developer Aby Rosen also
had good reason to be pleased when Buster Keaton, a sculpture by Jeff
Koons for which he had paid US$2.7 million two years ago, sold for
US$4.3 million (£2.9 million). A painting by the American pop artist
Tom Wesselman that fetched US$149,000 in 2000 went for US$2.4 million
(£1.5 million) this time.
The auction houses are the publicly visible face of the art market but
what is often forgotten is that they account for slightly less than half
of all business done. A report published at The European Fine Art Fair
in Maastricht last year revealed that 52% of sales are made through
dealers and art agents. This is a discreet way of doing business that
avoids the spotlight of the salerooms where if an artwork does not sell
its failure is very public and where estimates can reflect expectation
rather than actual value. Art agents remain busy and high calibre
dealers' exhibitions as shown at Asian Art in London are still
doing well.
Above all art is an orderly market which has avoided the wild
fluctuations seen on stock exchanges around the world and managed a
sensible correction amid a difficult global economic situation. At its
heart are high quality works of art and knowledgeable specialists and
collectors and the events of the past few weeks show that that solid
centre has not changed.
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