'The mood has changed'
October 14 2011
So says London-based art dealer Edmondo di Robilant, discussing last night's weak contemporary art auction at Sotheby's. A number of high-profile lots failed to sell, and although the Sotheby's press release talks boldly about records being broken, a closer look at the numbers reveals a different story.
The Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Sotheby's major event of this important contemporary art week (alongside Freize) raised a total of £17.8m. This figure includes buyer's premium, whereas the the pre-sale estimate of £19-26m does not. So knock off a couple of million for premiums, and you get a total hammer price some way below even the lower pre-sale estimate. That's not good, however you spin it.
From Bloomberg:
Some paintings went unsold, such as Peter Doig’s “Bellevarde,” valued at as much as 2 million pounds.
“That would have sold a year ago,” the London-based dealer Edmondo di Robilant said. “The mood has changed. Auction houses entice things with high estimates and in the past they’ve been able to sell them. That wasn’t always the case tonight. A number of lots that sold were knocked down against lowered reserves.”
Dealers said economic worries were weighing on some buyers. Even headline-grabbing pieces such as Marc Quinn’s 18-carat gold sculpture of Kate Moss in a yoga pose attracted just one bid. The 2008 “Microcosmos (SIREN)” was knocked down to a bidder represented by Patti Wong of Sotheby’s Asia for 577,250 pounds.
There was also just one telephone bid for the 1952 close-up portrait “Boy’s Head” by Freud, who died in July, aged 88. It was valued at 3 million pounds and fetched 3.2 million pounds.
The word is that Frieze this year hasn't exactly been stellar. So - what's going on? Is it the economy? Has the price-it-high and sell-it-low game played by the auctioneers finally been rumbled? Or, is the excesseive hype around contemporary art beginning to fade. Probably a combination of all three.
