Art market shrugs off economic gloom

By Peter Aspden, Arts Correspondent

Published: February 9 2008 03:08 | Last updated: February 9 2008 03:08

Records tumbled, bidding was frantic and a series of masterpieces found new homes: the London art auction season confounded expectations again this week, performing strongly against a background of nervousness over the world economy.

But as the auction houses sifted through the results of a highly successful week, they will have observed some warning signs that may temper their optimism.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s sold more than £368m ($716m) of art in their modern, Impressionist and Contemporary sales, well above their estimates and proving the art market’s resistance to unpromising economic indicators.

However, were some perilous signs amid the euphoria. One was the reduced number of US buyers. At the Sotheby’s Impressionist sale, which raised £144.5m, they constituted just 13 per cent of buyers by lot and were overtaken for the first time by Russian buyers, who formed 15 per cent.

At the equivalent sale last year, 21 per cent of buyers were American compared with 9 per cent Russian, while in June’s Impressionist sale the figures were 27 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

At the Christie’s Impressionist sale, which sold £105.4m of works, US buyers formed 15 per cent of the total, compared with 83 per cent who were European (Christie’s figures do not treat Russian buyers as a separate category).

US collectors have traditionally played a central role in the art market and their diminishing numbers will cause concern, although the auction houses claim that the globalisation of their client base has helped insulate them against the economic downturn that has affected US confidence.

Melanie Clore, co-chairman worldwide of Impressionism and modern art at Sotheby’s, said it was no surprise to find Russian collectors playing an increasingly promising role in sales: “One only has to look at the current Royal Academy exhibition [“From Russia”] to appreciate their cultural heritage and educated eye.”

Another cause for concern was the relatively high level of unsold lots, particularly at the Christie’s contemporary sale. The equivalent sale at Sotheby’s takes place later this month.

Although it saw the most prestigious sale of the week, of Francis Bacon’s “Triptych 1974-77” for £26.3m, the highest price ever paid for a post-war work of art sold in Europe, only 69 per cent of the auction’s lots were sold. The sale as a whole fetched £72.9m.

Jussi Pylkkänen, president of Christie’s Europe, said that showed the discrimination of buyers. “It showed the importance of getting estimates right. There is a lot of information available on artists and the market compared to 10 years ago, and many agents happy to give advice. If you overprice you are in trouble.”

Mindful of that danger, Sotheby’s has lowered the estimate of its “Red” charity auction, organised by Damien Hirst and Bono to help raise money for the fight against HIV/Aids, due to take place in New York on Thursday.

The auction house originally hoped the auction’s 83 lots, donated by artists, would raise $40m (£20.5m), but it has revised that figure downwards to $21m-$29m.

The highlight of the sale is a Damien Hirst pill cabinet, “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way”, estimated at $5m-$7m. A similar piece, “Lullaby Spring”, was sold in London in June for £9.7m, making Hirst the auction world’s then highest-priced living artist. The record has since passed to Jeff Koons.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008


Auction houses’ big draws

The week’s top sales

“Triptych 1974-77”
Francis Bacon
(Christie’s) £26.3m

“Grazing Horses”
Franz Marc
(Sotheby’s) £12.3m

“Schokko With Wide-Brimmed Hat”
Alexej von Jawlensky
(Sotheby’s) £9.4m

“La Loge”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(Sotheby’s) £7.4m

“Tête de Femme”
Pablo Picasso
(Sotheby’s) £7.4m

“Zwei Liebespaare”
Gerhard Richter
(Christie’s) £7.3m

“Concetto Spaziale, Attesa”
Lucio Fontana
(Christie’s) £6.7m

“Palm Springs Jump”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
(Christie’s) £6.5m

“Femme au Chapeau”
Picasso
(Christie’s) £5.7m

“Buste”
Alberto Giacometti
(Sotheby’s) £5.6m

“L’Ouled Naïl”
Kees van Dongen
(Christie’s) £5.6m