Category: Auctions
Boom (ctd.)
November 13 2013
Video: Christie's
A new record for a work of art at auction was set last night at Christie's in New York, when Francis Bacon's triptych portrait of Lucian Freud sold for $142.4m, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction. The overall sale was also the highest in auction history, netting $691,583,000.
So far so impressive. But I wonder if, in the long run, people in some distant, more rational age might come to view yet another record set last night as the most significant event of the evening: the $58.4m paid for Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog (Orange)*, which Christie's had touted as 'the Holy Grail of art'. This makes Koons the most expensive living artist.
Think of those last six words as some of the most depressing in the history of art, and gawp at the swaggering, smirking, vulgar display of taste-free excess on display in the video above.
*one of five
Update: Michael Savage Tweets that, using the US inflation calculator, Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr Gachet is still the most expensive painting bought at auction, just, at $147.8m. It sold in 1990 for $82.5m.
Update II - a reader writes
Fascinating -- the Christie's video which you slam (" swaggering, smirking, vulgar display of taste-free excess") has "been removed by the user" from YouTube.
Curious. So it has. And apparently the Koons was guaranteed, so someone evidently made a few bucks out of the upside.
Update III - a reader hears:
While in a NYC yesterday a person at the Met Museum suggested that the Koons was worth its price because he is more accessible than say Bacon.
Does accessible in the art world now mean shallow and lacking content.
New Claude discovery at Christie's
November 7 2013
Picture: Christie's
Christie's December Old Master sale catalogues are online, and the cover lot for their evening sale is a newly discovered £3m-£5m Claude landscape. The picture was nearly a bargain of the year, having been included (but withdrawn) in a Christie's South Kensington sale earlier this year as 'follower of Claude'. More details in Christie's press release here.
The enticing-sleeper-withdrawn-at-the-last-minute thing happens a lot these days. There's a reason for this, and I'll leave to you to figure it out.
Is this the end of the art market bubble?
November 5 2013
Picture: NYT
Over on Reuters, Felix Salmon sees the upcoming sales of one famous art collector, Steven Cohen, and wonders if his consigning recent purchases into auction signals an imminent collapse in the art market. In other words, Cohen's upcoming sales are evidence that the market is rising so fast, people can now 'flip' works to make a quick buck, even despite the art market's famously high transaction costs:
According to Carol Vogel and Peter Lattman in the NYT, Cohen is selling a Gerhard Richter [above] which he bought from the Pace Gallery last year, along with “about a dozen other pieces, mostly at Sotheby’s, that he acquired in recent years at art fairs and auctions”.
On top of Cohen’s works, Vogel has found other pieces being flipped this month, including Three Studies of Lucian Freud, by Francis Bacon, which “was purchased by a consortium from a private collector in Italy within the past 12 months”; and Apocalypse Now, by Christopher Wool, which was sold by David Ganek very recently. Between them, the Richter, the Bacon, and the Wool are going to account for a substantial percentage of the total amount of money spent at auction this season, which means that auction totals are increasingly comprised of short-term trades, as opposed to sales from individuals and families who have owned the objects for many years. [...]
It’s rare for people in the art world to buy a piece and then immediately consign it to auction. It’s common for works of art to be sold in the primary market for well below their auction value — but precisely because it is so common, there are lots of rules and protocols which mitigate against such things happening. When work is being sold at below-market rates, there’s naturally a lot of demand for it, which means that dealers can pick exactly which buyers they want. And if any buyer dares to flip such a work, he knows he’ll be blacklisted from then on in. Instead, if a buyer wants to sell a work he bought from a gallery, he always asks the gallery first.
Meanwhile, in other totally unrelated news, Mr Cohen's hedge fund SAC Capital has agreed to plead guilty to insider trading, and is to be fined a record $1.2 billion.
Sleeper Alert
October 31 2013
Picture: Bonhams
This 'Circle of Francesco Albani, Hercules Resting' made £254,500 at auction yesterday in London, against a £3,000-£5,000 estimate. I saw it at the view, and thought it was quite good, but had no idea who it's by. One for my bulging 'Sleepers I have missed' file.
Update - two readers say Carracci, one Annibale and the other Agostino.
Update II - another reader writes:
It's a new Leonardo!!!!!!! Well, what the heck, why not join the crowd?
Update III - a sleuthing reader notes the connection with this drawing by Annibale Carracci, sold at Sotheby's New York in 1998 for £73,000. Note the difference between the position of the hand. Well done readers - case solved?
Update IV - another reader writes:
Don't wish to teach granny how to suck eggs… but re. your Hercules item: a high price against a low estimate surely does not necessarily mean it's a sleeper. In this particular instance I would call it "speccy alert". As we all know, many of them just die a slow and painful death… with bitter and twisted buyers.
The real sleeper is the one that just 'walks out' of the saleroom - largely unnoticed.
Sleeper Alert
October 29 2013
Picture: ATG
The Antiques Trade Gazette reports that the above picture made £240,000 at a Lyon & Turnbull sale in Edinburgh sale last week, against a £8,000-£12,000 estimate. It was catalogued as by a 16th Century follower of Dieric Bouts, who painted this very similar composition in the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.
3 Cranachs at Sotheby's December Old Master sale
October 18 2013
Video: Sotheby's
I've said before how impressive Sotheby's Old Master videos are. This is another good one, with George Gordon discussing three works by Cranach (Elder and Younger) coming up at Sotheby's December Old Master sale, in London.
Update - one reader isn't a fan of Herr Cranach:
Yes, very good video, very skillful painting: I just can't get over my impression that Cronach (Elder) was both deeply misogynist, even for his day, even in paintings of the Madonna, and a pedlar of creepy "keyhole views" for voyeurs. Which may say as much about his patrons as him. No doubt others see him differently.....
Understanding condition (ctd.)
October 17 2013
Picture: Christie's
Regular readers will know I'm always beanging on about the importance of understanding a picture's condition, when buying at auction. The above picture, by Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, was recently sold at Christie's Amsterdam for EUR133,000, against a EUR20-30,000 estimate. As an attractive and engaging image, painted fluidly in oil on panel, it ticked a lot of boxes. Kinda cute, don't you think?
But did you spot the later over-paint around the chin? The picture had been very cunningly 'restored' by a previous owner, which had the effect of making it look a touch 19th Century. Click 'read on' to see what it looks like now, with all the over-paint removed.
Buyers whacked again at auction
September 4 2013
I learn via Art Market Monitor that Christie's has again increased its buyer premiums. The threshold at which the additional 25% is charged has increased to the first £50,000. Add VAT to that, and it means that the amount you actually bid in the auction room is sometimes only close 2/3 of the final price. I don't think we'd stand for that in Tesco.
I've said this before here, but every time the buyer's premium increases, it makes it seem more illogical to me that the major auctioneers are working almost entirely for the seller. There's a significant conflict of interest here. By far the greater portion of Christie's fees come from the buyer, and yet as the buyer you get the bum end of the deal - the price can only ever go up.
I'm currently trying to buy a house in London, and am used to estate agents regularly telling fantastical lies. But that's fine, for not only are some estate agents pathologically incapable of speaking the truth, it is also clear to everyone that they're getting their fee from the vendor, so I'd expect them to do all they can to up the price.
However, that's not the case for major auctioneers, where the balance of fees now comes more and more from the buyer. For me, the most grating area is the practice of bidding a single buyer up to the reserve (which is set by the vendor on the auctioneer's advice, and never disclosed to the buyer) by making him or her believe that there is another bidder in the room, and thus creating the illusion that there is a more competitive market for a work than is otherwise the case. If, for example, I was working for a client who had asked me to bid on a lot for them (that is, I had to work in their interest to secure the best price), and I suspected that a picture was about to fail to sell (once you know the signs, they're easy to spot), and thus potentially buyable after the sale for a reduced price, then I would be bound to advise them not to bid, and to let a picture get bought in. But that's not advice you recieve very often in the auction room.
Update - an auctioneer writes:
I agree with you on this one (being an auctioneer), the auction industry is heavily favouring the sellers. Naturally this comes from the notion that it is easier to get someone to buy than to sell, especially in the high-end segment of art and antiques. The fierce competition between the auction houses also promotes the idea that it's better to have it bought in at your own house than sold somewhere else. That makes it the seller's market and since consignors believe a high estimate will bring a high result, they usually go for the highest estimate offered (or lowest commission, everything else alike).
The practice of aftersales has only emerged during the recent years in my country (not being Britain), so previously all BI's were reoffered at the next sale with a revised estimate/reserve. I believe that practice had the best of two worlds. If the piece was offered the market too high, this would be adjusted a few months later until it hit market value or the consignor got bored and withdrew the whole thing.
The aftersales are a nuisance because, as you say, possible clients will gamble that the lot will be BI, and make an offer out of the public market (often on a first come, first served basis). I believe this is bad for the consignor as well as the potential buyers, since it is off-auction and not under any market scrutiny.
And speaking of buyer's premiums, they are as irritating to a buyer as the American sales tax additions are to Europeans used to VAT being included in the price.
Update II - another reader with auction house experience writes:
Firstly Christie's aren't the first to implement this new rate of 25% up to £50,000 they are just following in Sotheby's footsteps. I am not defending Christie's actions in doing so but it problem this highlights is that becasue both are such dominant players there is a fear factor - if one does something the other has to follow. And, so far copying each other seems to have paid off for them both.
Secondly in regard to after-sales:
The market never lies - if someone truly believed in something's worth i believe they would never 'gamble' that it would BI and so I dont agree that this sort of gambling happens. Anyone in trade who 'gambles' on after-sales I presume had no idea they were going to buy the work until after they knew it had BI'd (there will however be some exceptions to this rule)... in which case I find it bizarre that they can suddenly have a customer of theirs believe that are passionate about such a work and believe in it's quality when they previously had no intention of buying it. Further, because the work is never re-offered a fair market value for that artist is never established (and a customer is often duped).
Interesting on the first point, but very odd logic on the second. The market may indeed never lie - but the question is whether an auctioneer bidding someone up to the reserve (by pretending there is a rival bidder in the room) is in fact a genuine market at all.
Update III - our first auctioneer correspondent writes again:
On 'Interesting on the first point, but very odd logic on the second. The market may indeed never lie - but the question is whether an auctioneer bidding someone up to the reserve (by pretending there is a rival bidder in the room) is in fact a genuine market at all':
You have a point here, but to be fair, it is not only the potential buyers that constitute a market. The reserve is the seller's part in the deal. However, one could argue that the most fair practice would be publicly known reserves, as in many of the online action sites these days. That would of course lead to the loss of estimates, but really, would anyone miss them? My guess is that's the direction we're heading.
Faultless logic here - and a good idea.
Achtung! A cunning disguise
August 28 2013
Picture: Merenti Auktion
Depictions of Hitler and swastikas are verboten in Germany. But you'd never guess who these portraits, coming up at auction soon, showed...
Guffwatch - Saatchi special
August 7 2013
Picture: Guffwatch
Charles Saatchi is to sell a load of installation works at Christie's this autumn. As you'd expect, the Guffmeter goes off the scale in the accompanying catalogue, especially for such gems as the above 'piece' by Zhivago Duncan, which is called 'Pretentious Crap':
Pretentious Crap (2010-2011) is the remnants of a lost world reconfigured, contained within a heavy wooden and glass vitrine. We find towering rocklike formations that Zhivago Duncan has constructed out of Styrofoam and wax, and miniature railroad tracks, aeroplanes, locomotives and brightly coloured plastic monuments. Based on the fictional character of Dick Flash, the work was exhibited in 2011 at Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, at a show entitled Zhivago Duncan: Dick Flashs Souvenirs of Thought. The sole survivor of an apocalyptic catastrophe that has wiped out the rest of humanity, Dick Flash, a superhero persona, embarks on an odyssey in exploration of the devasted landscape. Pretentious Crap is one of Dick Flash's relics from his journey, where he has assembled former art objects in order to try and make sense of what has happened.
Embracing a variety of media that often has a gritty aesthetic associated with urban street culture, Zhivago Duncans work comments on contemporary cultural and socio-economic issues. In creating Dick Flash and these surreal recreations of a partially-remembered world, Duncan explores mankind, and the purpose of art within a postapocalyptic landscape, from a more objective perspective.
As Duncan has explained, 'Pretentious Crap is the result of the imaginary journey of Dick Flash, the worlds sole survivor of the apocalypse according to him and his legacy. Semiamnesiac, Dick Flash roams the converted world digging up the fruitful remains of his debauched ancestors. Without any recollection of his personal past, Dick Flash does, however, experience moments of epiphany, in which abstract notions of the origin of self, a collective memory, and the accumulated trials and tribulations of humanity are vaguely delineated, as revealed to him in prophetic visions'.
I think someone has had an irony bypass here.
The auction is a no-estimate, no-reserve sale. But before you think there may be bargains galore, note this nugget of Christie's small print, which is depressing on many levels: 'Extended payment terms are available on request for public institutions'.
Auction action from Finland
July 15 2013
Predictable, but amusing nonetheless.
The Russians are buying!
July 9 2013
Picture: Sotheby's, via Telegraph
So says Colin Gleadell in The Telegraph:
[...] it was at Sotheby’s that the full strength of Russian bidding came into play, accounting for 30 per cent of lots in the main evening sale. Among these was the top lot, a vividly Expressionist St Dominic in Prayer by El Greco, which sold for a record £9.2 million. The same Russian bidder also claimed a crucifixion scene by El Greco for £3.4 million. Although Sotheby’s did not identify exactly which lots were bought by Russians, it would seem that the list was fairly eclectic and would include a 15th-century Madonna and Child by Francesco Botticini, two paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder, and an 18th-century Venetian canal scene by Marieschi. The number of Russian-speaking telephone bidders was also overwhelming – so much so that the auctioneer, Henry Wyndham, christened one Olga, which was not her real name.
Sotheby’s co-chairman of Old Masters, Alex Bell, said afterwards that he thought the market had entered a new phase with this sale. Doing their homework over the weekend, Sotheby’s now estimates that in the past month, during which time they have taken nearly 290 million pounds in London, bidders from 75 different countries have registered with them. One in 6 were from Asia, Russia or the Middle East, and a similar percentage were bidding at Sotheby’s for the first time.
Sleeper alert?
July 5 2013
Picture: Christie's
The above 'Circle of Rubens' Mater Dolorosa just made £193,000 at Christie's South Kensington, against a £2-£3k estimate.
Brave...
'The market for Old Masters has never been stronger'
July 3 2013
Video: Christie's
So says the commentary for Christie's video above, showing highlights of the Old Master sale last night here in London. Sadly, the prices realised didn't quite prove the theory right. The total raised, including buyer's premium, was £23,852,300. In the same sale last year, the total was £85m.
So what happened? There were some fine pictures, the room was packed, the exhibition was well laid out, and the catalogue was first-class (they're getting really good these days). The problem was, I suspect, the high estimates. The £7m-£10m Jan Steen, for example, failed to elicit a single bid. The estimate was, I presume, arrived at on the back of Sotheby's record Steen price of £5.6m, realised last year for 'The Prayer Before the Meal'. However, the Prayer picture was, I believe, bought by a pre-sale guarantor, so it's not certain that the £5.6m figure is truly representative of Steen's 'value'. I'm afraid I thought the Christie's Steen rather an unappealing thing. Other buy-ins included a £1.5m-£2m Lucas Cranach the Elder of Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg, a pair of Wright of Derby landscapes at £500k-£700k, and a £3m-£5m Poussin of Hannibal on his Elephant.
The sale total was significantly helped by a Canaletto making £8.46m. A fine Rubens head study made £1.74m, which was a little low I thought for such a well painted image. Interestingly, Van Dyck head studies seem to be making much more than Rubens' examples at the moment. Something to do, I suspect, with Van Dyck being a better portraitist than Rubens, and his heads (especially in study form) therefore having a more immediate, modern feel to them.
On a night of fairly lacklustre bidding, it fell to our own British portraitists to shatter the estimate barrier - a Thomas Lawrence of Lady Berkeley made £901k against a £400k-£600k estimate, while George Romney's beautiful Portrait of Elizabeth Ramus made £541k against a (too low) estimate of £150k-£200k. The buyer of the Romney was so keen to have it that they unilaterally increased the bidding increments by £50,000. My kind of client.
It'll be interesting to see what tonight's Sotheby's sale makes. Last time round, in December, Sotheby's whupped Christie's with a total of £59m vs £11.2m.
Update - Christie's press release says:
Last night’s sale of Old Master & British Paintings was led by Canaletto’s The Molo, Venice, from the Bacino di San Marco, doubling its presale estimate to realise £8,461,875 / $12,870,512 / €9,841,161.
The sale saw strong prices for paintings from all schools, particularly Italian, Flemish and British, while six new artist world records were achieved.
With participation from Asia, the Middle East, South America and Russia as well as Europe and North America, the sale total of £23,852,300 / $36,279,348 / €27,740,225 reflects the continued global interest in Old Master Paintings.
Update II - a reader reminds me that I made a rash prediction on the Steen price, and writes:
I am happy to see that the buyers kept their paddles down so you wont have to eat your trousers...
What is a "Museum Price"?
June 18 2013
Pic: Christies
Here at our gallery it means a super low discount price! But does it mean something very different for auction houses?
A reader reminds me that two of the pictures on offer in the forthcoming Old Master sales, the Jan Steen and the Vernet, were, as tax exempted items of cultural interest, formally made available to UK museums some months before being sent to auction. Each picture was listed at what now transpires to be the upper estimate: the Steen [above] was being marketed to museums at a 'guide price' of £10m, and is now estimated by Christie's at £7-10m (and I'll eat my trousers if it gets much beyond the low estimate), while the Vernet was on offer at £5m, which is the high end of Sotheby's estimate of £3-5m.
As the Arts Council warned any museums interested in the pictures:
The practice of the auction houses is usually to pitch this at their high auction estimate or, sometimes, even higher.
Update: my earlier version of this story got the estimate for the Steen wrong - apologies!
Update II: as my fellow dealer Johnny Van Haeften often says; 'with dealers the price can only ever come down - but at auction it only goes up'.
Masterpieces at Christie's
June 13 2013
Video: Christie's
I'm annoyed to have missed the 'Masterpieces' exhibition at Christie's, which was on last week. The Grumpy Art Historian liked it, though as he says:
It was billed as a 'curated exhibition', but was mostly just the most expensive upcoming lots from the major summer sales.
Still, there's no better way of demonstrating the extraordinary quality of some of things you can buy this summer in London, many of which are museum standard. The snappy, if slightly effusive video above gives you an idea of what was on show, and I look forward to next year's offering. Full marks to Christie's for coming up with the idea for an exhibition like this.
Sleeper alert
June 13 2013
Dr Luuk Pijl writes from Holland:
The small copper enclosed is by Johan König (1586-1642). It was knocked down for 120.000 euro an hour ago at a sale in Toulouse against an estimate of 700/1000 euro, catalogued as Flemish school.
Old Master catalogues online
June 11 2013
Picture: Christie's
It's soon going to be my favourite time of year - Old Master sales galore - and the London auction catalogues are now all online. Christie's have amassed good selection of big names this year: a £5m-£7m Jan Steen; a £1.5m-£2.5m Rubens sketch many of you might know from the Ashmolean, where it has been on loan; a small and unpublished (but undoubtedly right) head by Titian [above]; and a Canaletto of the Doge's Palace at £4m-£6m. Sotheby's highlights include two El Grecos, one of St Dominic at Prayer (£3m-£5m), and a Christ on the Cross with the same estimate.
Sleeper Alert
June 10 2013
We were sad to underbid, at CHF125,000 (hammer price), this interesting portrait by Sir Peter Lely at the weekend, which came up in Switzerland as 'English School'. The sitter is currently unknown. The pose is repeated by Lely a number of times with different heads, so one must watch for the dread hand of studio.
Honthorst's 'Duet' sold in New York
June 10 2013
Picture: Christie's
Christie's did well with the above Honthorst in their New York Old Master sale last week, selling 'The Duet' for $3.37m (inc. premium). The estimate was $2-3m. The picture had an interesting provenance; having once been in the collection a Russian aristocratic family, the Stroganovs, it was seized by the Soviets and displayed in the Hermitage in St Petersburg. It was then sold by the Soviets in Berlin in 1931, where it was bought by Bruno and Ellen Spiro. Their possessions were seized by the Nazis in 1938, and it was re-sold, again in Berlin, only to end up in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1969. Happily, the picture was restituted to the Spiro heirs earlier this year.
Update - a reader Tweets:
Happy for the Spiros, but will they be dividing the proceeds with the Stroganovs?
Interesting point - how far back should we take restitution cases?
