As art auctions shrink, big houses look to future
October 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Art Market, Featured
Auction house wags will be watching to see how Sotheby’s fairs this time around.
The art world is anxiously awaiting the coming fall auction season, a major gauge of whether collectors are still feeling the wrath of the economic downturn.
The season kicks off Nov. 3 with Christie’s Impressionist and modern art evening sale. The sale features 40 works by blue-chip artists like Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet, and is expected to gross more than $68 million. Last spring, Christie’s brought in $102.7 million for the sale, well above its low estimate of $87.6 million.
Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art evening sale follows on Nov. 4 with a number of works from private collections including those of Dr. Arthur M. Sackler and the legendary dealer Paul Durand-Ruel.
Auction house wags will also be watching to see how Sotheby’s fairs this time around. In May, its Impressionist and modern art evening sale brought in only $61.3 million, far short of its low estimate of $81.5 million.
The offerings are fewer and the prices are much lower than they were a year ago, when the fall auctions first felt the force of the economic crisis.
“This season compares favorably to the spring, which was spectacular,” said Robert Manley, head of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art department in New York. “The market has found its level, and we’re going to maintain that level and hopefully show some steady growth over time.”
On Nov. 10, Christie’s will hold its post-war and contemporary evening sale, comprised of 47 lots with an estimate range of $67 million to $94 million. The sale includes works from the collection of John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and is led by one of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s masterpieces, Brother Sausage. The Basquiat piece is estimated at $9 million to $12 million.
Sotheby’s contemporary art sale follows on Nov. 11 featuring 20 works from noted collectors Mary Schiller Myers and Louis S. Myers. The cover lot is Andy Warhol’s 200 One Dollar Bills, which is estimated at $8 million to $12 million.
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