Category: Auctions
In praise of...
November 22 2011
Picture: Christie's
Christie's! I'm very impressed by Christie's catalogue for their December Old Master Evening sale. With well-written, lengthy entries full of pertinent facts and technical information, it sets a new standard for Old Master auction catalogues.
'Sold for $43m!' Or perhaps not...?
November 21 2011
Picture: Christie's
There's an excellent article in The Economist* on the practice of guaranteeing pictures at auction. This is the process whereby an auction house finds a third party, perhaps a wealthy collector, to give a guarantee on a picture, thus helping secure its consignment by the vendor. If the picture does not sell on the big night, the guarantor gets to keep the picture (usually at a price below the lower estimate) and the vendor gets the moolah.
So far so clear. Things get murky, though, when the guarantor then starts bidding on the picture - if he buys it, he will almost certainly then get a discount (or a 'financing fee') in return for having guaranteed it. The question then is - if a guaranteed picture 'sells' at auction for, say, $10 million, and the buyer actually pays just $9 million (the remainder being his discount in the form of a financing fee), then has the picture really 'sold' for $10m? Most people would say not. And in a business where everything revolves around percieved value, then isn't that a distortion of the market?
The recent sale at Christie's of Roy Lichtenstein's 'I can see the whole room... and there's nobody in it!', above, may be, according The Economist, a case in point:
It is strongly believed, for example, that Guy Bennett, an art advisor acting on behalf of the Qataris, negotiated third-party guarantees on the top lots at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s recent contemporary auctions in New York. During the prestigious evening sale at Christie’s on November 8th, Mr Bennett was seen to make the winning bid of $38.5m for Roy Lichtenstein’s 1961 painting, “I can see the whole room!... and There’s Nobody in it!”. Christie’s normal buyer’s premium (or commission) on this would bring the final price up to $43.2m, which was the price reported by Christie’s. However, high-powered guarantors often negotiate a 50-50 split with the auction house of as much as 30% of the overage (the amount generated above the guaranteed price) and an additional 50% of the buyer’s premium. The market believes the Lichtenstein was guaranteed at $35m. If Mr Bennett, who bought the picture, had negotiated such a deal, the real price he paid would have been $40.3m.
So if the above scenario actually happened, then the Christie's press release saying that 'I can see the whole room...' 'sold' for $43.2m is flat out wrong. Things get even murkier when the only bidder on the night is the guarantor. Because then you can't really be sure that the picture has sold for any value at all. It could be an exercise in setting 'value', perhaps to keep prices up for a certain artist. The Economist concludes that the guarantee system is too murky for its own good:
Good auctions are theatrical spectacles that create the illusion of deep markets. Historically a successful sale needs at least two bidders. But sometimes a guarantee leads to a “private sale in public” in which the guarantor is the only bidder. When the top prices for a particular artist are only reached via these kinds of behind-the-scenes, one-to-one transactions, it is reasonable to ask whether it is indicative of a market at all.
No one wants to ruin the entertainment value of a night out at the auctions, but contemporary art has enough credibility problems without unnecessary murkiness. “Industry practices need to catch up with the value of art today”, argue Michael Plummer and Jeff Rabin of Artvest Partners, a firm of art-investment advisors. “We need to require a higher standard of transparency and ethical behaviour because so much money is at stake.” Regardless of the money involved, the market would be considerably fairer and more open if the auction houses reported real prices, disclosed the reserve prices—and named the third-party guarantors as well.
*Thanks to Neil Bird for bringing it to my attention.
$23.6 million Chinese contemporary work
November 21 2011
Picture: cultural-china.com
A work by Wu Guanzhong, Ten Thousand Kilometres of the Yangtze River (detail above), has sold at auction in Beijing for $23.6m. I think (but will have to check) that this is a new record for an individual work by a Chinese contemporary artist. More on Wu Guanzhong here.
The risks of selling your art at auction in Paris...
November 18 2011
Picture: Avis de recherche de la Police Nationale
Thousands of works that 'went missing' over many years from the main Paris auction centre, L'Hotel des Ventes de Drouot, have been listed online by French police in a bid to identify their owners. The site is a nightmare to navigate, but contains some intriguing pictures. A number of arrests have been made, mainly amongst the porters at Drouot, the so-called cols-rouges. For more background on the case, see Simon Hewitt's reports in the Antiques Trade Gazette.
New Powell Frith discovered
November 16 2011
Picture: BBC News
Found in an American beach house - a first version of William Powell Frith's epic painting, Derby Day. The finished picture, one of the most famous 19th Century narrative paintings, is in the Tate. This earlier version by Frith will be sold at Christie's in December, with an estimate of up to £500,000. Annoyingly, the catalogue entry is not online yet, so for now more details on BBC News here
Old Master Sales online
November 12 2011
Picture: Christie's
The Christie's and Sotheby's December Old Master Sales are online. Christie's here, and Sotheby's here. I'll post more on these once I've gone through them. Christie's are leading with the above Goya, a Portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo, who was embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain, estimated at £4,000,000 – 6,000,000
Sold for £646k, estimated at £3-5k
November 10 2011
Picture: Christie's
I love it when these little Chinese things go through the roof. Here is the latest example, an ivory dragon seal catalogued at Christie's as 19th/20th Century and estimated at just £3-5,000. It sold for a massive £646,050 (or $1,035,628). I'm no expert on this area, but it looks pretty fine, and old, to me.
Imagine ringing the vendor to tell them the good news...
'And in the middle of a recession...'
November 10 2011
Sotheby's last night triumphed in the battle of the auction sales, with their contemporary art total of $316 million beating Christie's $247 million. This follows on from Sotheby's whooping Christie's... gavel in the impressionist sales last week. From Reuters:
The $315,837,000 total including commissions easily beat the presale estimate of $192 million to $270 million.
"It was one of the best auctions I've ever seen in my life," said Nicolai Frahm, a leading London-based contemporary art adviser. "And in the middle of a recession," he added.
Sotheby's scored a coup by landing a group of four Stills [Clyfford Still, two works above], whose works virtually never come to market and which were being sold by the city of Denver to benefit a new Still museum opening there this month.
Led by "1949-A-No. 1," which soared to $61,682,500 against an estimate of $30 million and smashed the record for the artist, the group of abstracts took in $114 million, nearly twice the pre-sale estimate.
Is this the contemporary art market temporarily defying gravity? Or a sign that everything will be alright? Who knows. I'd like not to be reminded of the record breaking Damien Hirst sale on the day of the Lehman collapse...
And now for something completely different...
November 9 2011
Picture: Christie's
That's enough Leonardo stuff for the moment. At Christie's New York last night the contemporary art crowd ('Leonardo who?') breathed a collective sigh of relief at some strong prices. Headlining the sale was Roy Lichtenstein's 'I Can See the Whole Room! ... And There's Nobody in it!', which sold for $43.2 million, beating it's lower estimate of $35m. The picture was guaranteed, so Christie's will be relieved.
The sale of 91 works realised a total $247.6 million, and went some way to making up for Christie's poor showing last week with impressionist and modern works. Still, I'd happily trade those 91 for Leonardo's Salvator Mundi. Full details of the other sales here.
Sotheby's rides to the rescue...
November 3 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
After the very poor showing at Christie's Impressionist and Modern art sale on Tuesday (a sale even Reuters called 'dismal'), Sotheby's came to the rescue of the modern art market last night with a solid sale totalling $200 million.
The Klimt sold well for $40m (inc. premium), beating its estimate of $25-35m, as I expected. Other strong performers included a Caillebotte Le Pont d'Argenteuil et la Seine (above), which sold for £18 million. Just three years ago it made $8m. Caillebotte seems to be all the rage these days. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will be pleased that their Monet, Antibes, Le Fort, which was being deaccessioned to raise funds for a new acquisition, went well above its $5-7 million estimate to make $9.2 million (inc. premium). Presmuably they'll have to insure their other version for more...
Sotheby's were delighted with the sale, using the usual trick of including the buyer's premium to say the final total was 'well within' the pre-sale estimate (which does not include any premiums) of $167 million-230 million. Tobias Meyer, the auctioneer, said:
You could really see the market rallying. If ever there was a turnaround, I think it happened tonight.
Now we wait to see what happens next week with the contemporary sales...
After Degas failure at Christie's, all eyes on Sotheby's NY tonight
November 2 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
The prized Degas bronze failed to sell at Christie's New York last night, so nervous market watchers will be looking at the recently restituted Klimt coming up for sale tonight in New York. It should make its lower estimate of $25m. Also in the sale is one of the Monets being sold by Boston Museum of Fine Arts to raise money for their newly acquired Caillebotte.
Lure of the historical portrait
November 2 2011
Picture: Lyon & Turnbull
A portrait of John Brown and Queen Victoria fetched £120,000 (hammer) at the Forbes collection sale in Edinburgh yesterday. The picture was by Charles Burton Barber and based on a photograph, so looked rather wooden. But it nonetheless comfortably beat its estimate of £20-30,000. It had originally been a gift to Brown's family from Victoria.
To see my view of the nature of the relationship between Brown and Victoria (ie, did they get it on?), see here.
Elsewhere in the sale, some of the high profile 19th Century lots failed to set the pulses racing. In particular, J E Millais' For the Squire, the epitome of Victorian 'sentimentalia', sold for £450,000 hammer, against a £500-800,000 reserve. The price reflects the changing taste for some 19th Century art - 15 years ago, at the height of the pre-Raphaelite fever, it might have made double that...
Optimism - or sleeper of the decade?
October 27 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
This picture is a copy of Rembrandt's celebrated self-portrait in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It was sold at Sotheby's today with an estimate of £8-12,000 - but realised £110,000 with premium. I thought it was quite nice - it dominated the room in which it was hanging at the auction - but not Rembrandt nice.
So the question is, is it worth £110k as a copy? No. Is it worth, I dunno, £20/30m as a Rembrandt? Yes, if it's a Rembrandt... The costume differed from the Vienna picture, and the provenance was illustrious; it was being sold by the Liechenstein Collection. Perhaps these factors led to at least two people thinking it was worth a punt. Equally, somebody may be confident of attributing it to an artist in Rembrandt's circle or studio.
New Velazquez discovery
October 27 2011
Picture: Bonhams
Bonhams will sell a newly discovered work by Velazquez this December. Estimated at £2-3m, it was nearly sold in their Oxford saleroom as a sleeper. The London department spotted the picture, and advised it be withdrawn. More details on the painting here, and a more detailed photo below the jump.
'Ruskin's view' yours for £200,000
October 26 2011
Pic: Bonhams
Bonhams are to sell an important watercolour by JMW Turner in their 19th Century Paintings Sale in January.
Known as 'Ruskin's view', after a glowing review of the area by the critic in 1875, the scene depicts the churchyard at St Marys Church in Kirkby Lonsdale. Ruskin said:
"whatever moorland hill, and sweet river, and English forest foliage can be seen at their best is gathered there; and chiefly seen from the steep bank which falls to the stream side from the upper part of the town itself. ...I do not know in all my own country, still less in France or Italy, a place more naturally divine, or a more priceless possession of true "Holy Land."
Interestingly, Turner decided to omit the church itself, instead focussing on the trees, river and valley landscape which he obviously considered more pertinent features of an atmospheric landscape.
The painting has not been seen at auction since 1884 and with its previous owner being Sir Donald Currie, a shipping magnate and big collector of Turner who also exhibited it at the Royal Academy in 2000, its provenance is tip top.
The estimate is £200,000 - £300,000. Lets hope it finds a buyer as the market for works on paper has been looking quite gloomy up here recently...
Press release here.
By LH.
Guffwatch: How do you describe a photo of Crucifix in a bucket of piss?
October 26 2011
Picture: Christie's
If you're trying to sell it for $200-300,000, like this:
Title ignored, Andres Serrano's most seminal work to date portrays a monumental crucifix emerging majestically from enveloping fields of velvety blacks, heated reds and warm yellows. While the impressive form hovers solemnly over viewers it is also apparent that it is submerged, a fact indicated by tiny air bubbles that cling to Christ's body, a quality that affords the photograph a palpable quiet, like that experienced when under water or when alone with oneself in a hushed place of worship. As such, the work very successfully recalls the profound power of the imagery which has served to call the masses to concerted prayer for hundreds of years and which has been a primary source of artistic inspiration and creation throughout art history. [...]
Piss Christ (1987), the artist has said, was first and foremost a formal exercise, exploring the relationship between color and shape, two-dimensions and three-dimensions, centered about an instantly recognizable, almost Pop, visual icon. Its composition, created by placing a plastic souvenir crucifix in a vat of the artist's urine, was meant to humanize a super-human figure and belief, to explore the idea of religion as an extension of our day-to-day, of our common, base experience.
Restituted Klimt to make $25m
October 25 2011
Pic: Sothebys
Kilmt's Litzlberg am Attersee (Litzlberg on the Attersee) is to be sold by Sothebys and is expected to fetch more than $25m after it was returned to the rightful heir George Jorisch earlier this year.
The landscape was looted by Nazis in 1941 from Jorisch's grandmother, along with the rest of her art collection after she was sent to Lodz Ghetto in Poland.
Quite in contrast to his tense portraits, these serene landscapes were painted for himself. This one in particular was painted in 1915 when Klimt was at Lake Attersee in the Salzkammergut area of Austria, and demonstrates a technique considered quite radical for the day.
Catalogue notes here.
By LH.
Christie's vs. Sothebys
October 25 2011
A few intersting statistics for this month in the Antiques Trade Gazette this morning:
Christie's Contemporary Art Evening Sale - £32.9m
Sothebys Contemporary Art Evening Sale - £15.1m
Ouch.
The results for the Italian sales however saw Sothebys emerge victorious with £18.4m hammer total against Christie's £15m.
By LH.
Why you shouldn't trust an auction house condition report
October 21 2011
This was the condition report on a head and shoulders portrait of a gentleman, which we recently bought from a prominent regional UK auctioneer:
Fine craqueleure in areas, several deep scratches to lower half that require retouching, some old restoration, would benefit from a clean.
You wouldn't guess from this that the scratches (actually rips in the canvas) were in the face, the most important part of any portrait. And not least because the face was in the top half of the painting!
Artist exposes fake at auction in China
October 20 2011
Picture: China Daily
One of China's hottest contemporary artists, Zhang Xiaogang, has exposed a fake of his work that was about to be sold at auction. From China Daily:
The portrait of a young girl was among the modern and contemporary artworks that Beijing Tranthy International Auction Co Ltd had gathered for its autumn auction.
On Tuesday, a Sina micro blogger asked Zhang to authenticate the painting. He replied on the website: "It's a bad fake at first sight. Poorly done. How dare someone put it up for auction." [...]
Tranthy Auction has withdrawn the piece Zhang identified as fake from the auction and apologized to him. A source with Tranthy who refused to be named said that on June 2 the painting sold for 1.8 million yuan (then almost $278,000) at Beijing Yinqianshan International Auction House.
I suspect this happens all the time. I'm often told that one of the reasons people prefer to buy contemporay art instead of old masters is that they can be certain about the attribution. But these days that just isn't the case. There are fakes everywhere (and of course, some might say that many of these contemporary works aren't hard to fake). The added problem in China is that the country's auction houses are exempted, by law, from giving any guarantee or authentification of the works they sell.
Finally, I love the defence put up by one of the auctioneers:
He went on to challenge the painter: "Does Zhang remember clearly how many paintings he has done through his life?"
