Maude Herremans-Michali’s Post

In the recent Modern and contemporary evening auctions held in London, Christie's emerged victorious with an impressive overall total of £163.3 million (£196.7 million including fees) on March 7, surpassing Sotheby's, which garnered £82.2 million (£99.7 million with fees) the preceding evening. Christie's remarkable £163.3 million sum, representing a 17 percent increase from the previous year, was significantly bolstered by the inclusion of 25 Surrealist masterpieces, among which was the auction's top-selling lot, René Magritte's late work "L'ami intime" (1958), which fetched a staggering £29 million (£33.7 million with fees, estimated value without fees £30 million-£50 million) despite minimal fanfare. This piece was sold from the collection of the late publisher and conductor Gilbert Kaplan and his spouse, who had initially acquired the work for a mere £90,000 at an auction in 1980. The overall results suggest a persistent divergence between auction house estimates and final selling prices in the current cautious market environment. The totals achieved by Sotheby's and Christie's were at the lower end of expectations, which had already been revised downward due to numerous withdrawals, while Phillips' modest sale of £10.9 million (£13.7 million with fees) on March 7 fell short of its lower estimate of £11.7 million. According to dealer Nick Maclean, the bidding at Christie's for Francis Bacon's "Landscape near Malabata, Tangier" (1963) – which was acquired by adviser Francis Outred for £16.8 million (£19.6 million with fees), within the estimated range – encapsulated the broader market sentiment. Maclean states, "Buyers are cautious not to exceed their limits, so the market has lost some of its froth, but there is still stability." The Bacon piece, once part of author Roald Dahl's collection, was reportedly sold last week by hedge fund manager Pierre Lagrange, who is also believed to be the seller of Frank Auerbach's "Head of EOW II" (1964), which fetched £3.3 million (£4 million with fees) at Sotheby's, within its estimated range. Both works had previously been sold through the London dealer Ivor Braka and were offered at auction with third-party guarantees. #artcollecting #artexhibition #artmuseum #artinvesting #artinvestment #artcollector #artnews #artworld #artmarket #artmarketnews #artauction #artgallery #artfair #arthistory #artworld #fair #worldrecord #modernart #impressionism #postwar #contemporaryart #financialtimes #ft #christieslondon #christies #sothebys #sothebyslondon #magritte

Christie's Auction Sales Plunge by 22%. Should the Art World Be Concerned? Christie's, the world's leading auction house, revealed on Tuesday that it achieved $2.1 billion in live and online auction sales in the first half of 2024. This amount signifies a 22 percent drop compared to the same period last year. In the first half of 2023, Christie's recorded $2.7 billion in live and online auction sales, which was already a 23 percent decline from the $3.5 billion generated during the same timeframe in 2022. Historically, Christie's has disclosed the combined revenues of auction and private sales. However, this year, the house did not report its private sales figures. Between 2021 and 2023, private sales experienced a notable decline, decreasing from $850 million to $484 million. According to Christie's, 41 percent of their buyers this year were based in the Americas, 38 percent in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and 21 percent in Asia. The proportion of Asian buyers decreased by 5 percent from the first half of 2022, falling from 26 percent to 21 percent. This figure was considerably higher in 2021, at 39 percent. For the second consecutive year, Guillaume Cerutti, the house’s CEO, described the market environment as consistently "challenging" during a press conference announcing the results on Tuesday. Despite the overall decline, the house highlighted a positive trend: 29 percent of its clients are millennials and Gen Z, indicating that these collectors are under 40 years old. This percentage is consistent with last year’s figures, suggesting that the 250-year-old business is successfully maintaining the interest of younger collectors. For more auctions in Christie's, please click the link below: https://lnkd.in/d_SWDtkA #artist #artandauction #topauctionhouse #artworksforsale #upcomingauctions #toplots #artistindex #artist #artbider #christies

𝗧𝗢𝗣 𝟰 𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗔𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗦 Based on factors such as longevity, sales history, annual revenue, diversity of auctioned items, global reach, notable collections, record sale prices, service quality, and digital innovation, a ranking of the best auction houses has been made: 𝐒𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐛𝐲'𝐬 Founded in London in 1744, Sotheby's is the world's largest and longest-standing auction house, earning over $7 billion annually. It excels in contemporary art, jewelry, wine, and manuscripts. Record sales include a $450 million Rembrandt. 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐞’𝐬 Founded in 1766, Christie's boasts the highest total auction turnover and holds the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold in a public sale, with annual sales exceeding billions across digital platforms and five continents. Notable auction records include $450 million for Salvator Mundi. 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐬 Britain’s oldest auctioneer, Bonhams, was founded in 1793 and has offices worldwide, achieving over $1 billion in annual sales. It is mainly known for rare books, motorcars, and collectibles. Bonhams holds the record for the most expensive medieval manuscript sold at auction. 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬 A newcomer auction house founded in 1996, Phillips has a strong global foothold focused on 20th and 21st-century art and design. With annual revenues of over $900 million, it lags behind older houses but remains a driving force in contemporary art auctions. Its best auction result was nearly $40 million for a Basquiat skull painting. Regarding online sales, historic auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's count approximately 9% of their sales from digital platforms, while newer houses like Phillips reach about 20%, indicating that live events remain central to top houses, but seamless digital integration gives an edge to recent entrants. These top auction houses constitute a small group with enormous power over the trade in luxury goods and art worldwide. Christie's and Sotheby's stand at the pinnacle as legacy names synonymous with record sales and iconic collections. However, Bonhams and Phillips have emerged as real contenders with their own competitive strengths. #SchweglerAssociated #AuctionHouses #FineArt #Valuables #Insurance

Christie’s marathon evening sales in London make a within-estimate £163m. The modest results of Christie’s back-to-back 20th/21st century and Art of the Surreal evening sales in London, held tonight (7 March), were the best that this week’s marquee spring auctions in the UK capital could muster. They followed a Phillips evening sale earlier today that just missed its £11m low estimate (all estimates are calculated without fees) and a Modern and contemporary evening auction at Sotheby’s the prior night that made 40% less than that house’s comparable sale in 2023. Across Christie’s two auctions Thursday night, the house pulled in £163.3m (£196.7m with fees) from a combined 112 lots, squeezing into its pre-sale estimate range of £160.3m to £233.1m. The total splits out into £113.8m (£137.7m with fees) for the 20th/21st century sale, against a £112.3m to £157m estimate, and £49.5m (£59m with fees) for the Surrealist sale, against a £48m to £76.1m estimate. Although the combined sales total represented an 18.5% increase by value from Christie’s equivalent evening auctions in London last March, it was still a 24.2% decrease from the 2022 iterations (which included 20 contemporary works sold from the house’s Shanghai saleroom), underscoring that the market is yet to fully return to its former heights. The evening’s aggregate sell through rate was 86.7% by lot (though the figure drops to 81.2% if withdrawals are factored in). Around 25% of the works on offer carried guarantees. Seven lots were withdrawn from the 20th/21st century auction, including Francis Bacon’s Painting March 1985 (1985), last sold by Christie’s in Paris in 2013 and expected to fetch up to £6m tonight; no lots were withdrawn from the Surrealist sale. Read article : https://lnkd.in/eCuvpFhM

$46.5 M. Basquiat leads Phillips’s tepid $86.3 M. New York Auction. Phillips earlier this week hosted New York marquee auctions on Tuesday with a sale of modern and contemporary art. The Phillips sale brought in $86.3 million, coming in just below the auction’s $90 million pre-sale estimate. Still, this result marked an improvement over last year’s May New York auction held by Phillips, which brought in $69.5 million. The priciest lot was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (ELMAR), from 1982, one of 13 lots that hit the block with a third-party guarantee. Phillips gave the painting a $60 million high estimate, putting it on track to become one of the most expensive Basquiat paintings ever sold at auction. That number was in part a reflection of its decorated provenance: it had been acquired from dealer Annina Nosei by anthropologist Francesco Pellizzi, a friend of Basquiat. Pellizzi then sold it to the current consignor. Untitled (ELMAR) didn’t come close to that $60 million figure, ultimately hammering for just a hair above its low estimate, at $40.2 million. Even if that wasn’t an astounding number, it was good enough for people in the room, who greeted the sale with a round of applause. With fees, the final result was $46.5 million. The action at this sale was slow, with few bidding wars. Most works sold for within their estimates. Helen Frankenthaler’s Acres (1959), a soak-and-stain painting from this Abstract Expressionist’s heyday, was one of the few works that managed to incite a bona fide battle. Over the course of several minutes, two phone bidders duked it out, pushing the work far beyond its $2.5 million high estimate. In the end, it sold for $3.69 million—hardly a record for Frankenthaler, whose most expensive work at auction sold for $7.8 million at an online Sotheby’s sale in 2021, but a good result no less. But the Frankenthaler was an exception during an auction in which buyers seemed cautious about bidding on work by established artists. Following the hour-long auction’s conclusion, some said it was tough to speak in grand pronouncements about the results. “We’re seeing a mixed, artist-specific market at Phillips tonight,” art adviser David Shapiro told ARTnews. But he said there were some positives: the sell-through rate was 92 percent, which he noted was solid, “notwithstanding some tepid results.” #artcollecting #artexhibition #artmuseum #artinvesting #artinvestment #artcollector #artnews #artworld #artmarket #artmarketnews #artauction #artgallery #artfair #arthistory #artworld #fair #worldrecord #modernart #impressionism #postwar #contemporaryart #jeanmichelbasquiat #phillipsnewyork #phillips #basquiat

$46.5 M. Basquiat leads Phillips’s tepid $86.3 M. New York Auction. Phillips earlier this week hosted New York marquee auctions on Tuesday with a sale of modern and contemporary art. The Phillips sale brought in $86.3 million, coming in just below the auction’s $90 million pre-sale estimate. Still, this result marked an improvement over last year’s May New York auction held by Phillips, which brought in $69.5 million. The priciest lot was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (ELMAR), from 1982, one of 13 lots that hit the block with a third-party guarantee. Phillips gave the painting a $60 million high estimate, putting it on track to become one of the most expensive Basquiat paintings ever sold at auction. That number was in part a reflection of its decorated provenance: it had been acquired from dealer Annina Nosei by anthropologist Francesco Pellizzi, a friend of Basquiat. Pellizzi then sold it to the current consignor. Untitled (ELMAR) didn’t come close to that $60 million figure, ultimately hammering for just a hair above its low estimate, at $40.2 million. Even if that wasn’t an astounding number, it was good enough for people in the room, who greeted the sale with a round of applause. With fees, the final result was $46.5 million. The action at this sale was slow, with few bidding wars. Most works sold for within their estimates. Helen Frankenthaler’s Acres (1959), a soak-and-stain painting from this Abstract Expressionist’s heyday, was one of the few works that managed to incite a bona fide battle. Over the course of several minutes, two phone bidders duked it out, pushing the work far beyond its $2.5 million high estimate. In the end, it sold for $3.69 million—hardly a record for Frankenthaler, whose most expensive work at auction sold for $7.8 million at an online Sotheby’s sale in 2021, but a good result no less. But the Frankenthaler was an exception during an auction in which buyers seemed cautious about bidding on work by established artists. Following the hour-long auction’s conclusion, some said it was tough to speak in grand pronouncements about the results. “We’re seeing a mixed, artist-specific market at Phillips tonight,” art adviser David Shapiro told ARTnews. But he said there were some positives: the sell-through rate was 92 percent, which he noted was solid, “notwithstanding some tepid results.” #artcollecting #artexhibition #artmuseum #artinvesting #artinvestment #artcollector #artnews #artworld #artmarket #artmarketnews #artauction #artgallery #artfair #arthistory #artworld #fair #worldrecord #modernart #impressionism #postwar #contemporaryart #jeanmichelbasquiat #phillipsnewyork #phillips #basquiat https://lnkd.in/eeKeRYfT

Fine art auctioneers Sotheby's and Christie's are building out their live-streaming Web3 strategy with more specialised auctions, themed auctions, and auctions in other categories to increase their schedule of fine and decorative art, jewelry, real estate, NFTs and collectibles sales. In 2020 Sotheby's live-streamed its first global art auction by connecting buyers from New York, London and Hong Kong, transforming their auction room centre into a live-stream production studio with more than 2.8 million. Sotheby's, state-of-the art technology was deployed across three continents for real-time bidding, live telephone bids made up 42% of winning bids, 72% of bids were placed online, resulting in 40% growth of new buyers. Overall, live-streamed and online art sales now make up 90% of all turnover. The strategy is a smart way for Sotheby's to actively grow sales and engage with younger buyers who spend more time on YouTube, bringing fine art auctions into the streaming era of live video commerce. #ArtMarket

The evolving auction calendar: seizing every global opportunity. The final auction season of 2024 is underway, but the calendar is quite different from the past. London’s October auctions, previously an add-on to Frieze, have grown into a major event, particularly after Christie’s skipped its June sale in favor of a stronger autumn lineup. Meanwhile, Christie’s opened a new Hong Kong headquarters, kicking off major sales in late September. This marks the start of a busy three-month period, which Sotheby’s may match in timing.  After Frieze week, the action shifts to Paris, where Sotheby’s is hosting events at its new five-floor space to attract wealthy buyers during Art Basel Paris. November then sees the traditional sales in New York, with major houses working hard to boost spending before Art Basel Miami Beach. While major art fairs have driven this reshuffling, economic uncertainties are prompting auction houses to expand geographically. The strategy is to balance out slower regions by exploring other markets, but finding enough high-quality art is a challenge. Auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips were down 27% in the first half of 2024, per ArtTactic’s RawFacts report. This new calendar approach spreads auctions across a wider landscape, targeting more art at lower prices, though high-value lots will continue to dominate New York’s sales. The question remains whether the market can support so many events. Last year, auction house executives were visibly drained during the French fair, and buyers may become more selective. For now, expect a bit of everything everywhere as the market finds its footing again. #artcollecting #artexhibition #artmuseum #artinvesting #artinvestment #artcollector #artnews #artworld #artmarket #artmarketnews #artauction #arthistory #worldrecord #modernart #impressionism #postwar

The evolving auction calendar: seizing every global opportunity. The final auction season of 2024 is underway, but the calendar is quite different from the past. London’s October auctions, previously an add-on to Frieze, have grown into a major event, particularly after Christie’s skipped its June sale in favor of a stronger autumn lineup. Meanwhile, Christie’s opened a new Hong Kong headquarters, kicking off major sales in late September. This marks the start of a busy three-month period, which Sotheby’s may match in timing.  After Frieze week, the action shifts to Paris, where Sotheby’s is hosting events at its new five-floor space to attract wealthy buyers during Art Basel Paris. November then sees the traditional sales in New York, with major houses working hard to boost spending before Art Basel Miami Beach. While major art fairs have driven this reshuffling, economic uncertainties are prompting auction houses to expand geographically. The strategy is to balance out slower regions by exploring other markets, but finding enough high-quality art is a challenge. Auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips were down 27% in the first half of 2024, per ArtTactic’s RawFacts report. This new calendar approach spreads auctions across a wider landscape, targeting more art at lower prices, though high-value lots will continue to dominate New York’s sales. The question remains whether the market can support so many events. Last year, auction house executives were visibly drained during the French fair, and buyers may become more selective. For now, expect a bit of everything everywhere as the market finds its footing again. #artcollecting #artexhibition #artmuseum #artinvesting #artinvestment #artcollector #artnews #artworld #artmarket #artmarketnews #artauction #arthistory #worldrecord #modernart #impressionism #postwar https://lnkd.in/e5eNTW83

Read between the lines and the opaque mechanisms of the auction market become rather telling. "... A $22.3 million bronze sculpture of a woman by Alberto Giacometti. A $7.5 million scene of lovers in a park by Kerry James Marshall. An $8.3 million painting of a wave by David Hockney. These pictures have one thing in common: They were purchased, market observers say, by clients who promised to pay a minimum price before the auctioneer had even picked up the gavel. The third-party guarantee, which became a popular risk-avoidance tool after the 2008 financial crisis, is playing an increasingly critical role in today’s jittery art market. (Consider it the art-market equivalent of a put option.) Last week, auction houses secured outside investors to support a vast majority of financial guarantees offered to sellers. Those investors were behind every guaranteed work in Phillips’s modern and contemporary evening sale on May 14 — commitments roughly equivalent to two-thirds of the auction’s total value. At the Christie’s and Sotheby’s evening sales, 105 of the 117 works with guarantees were backed by third parties. “When so many works are guaranteed, you are essentially watching a private sale in public,” said the art dealer David Zwirner. While the prearranged deal-making sucks the drama out of the room, “it is better for a work to sell than not sell.” The phenomenon is “almost a requirement for selling right now,” the former auction executive Caroline Sayan said. What many have noticed this year is that the pool of potential guarantors is growing beyond the typical hedge-fund honchos. Dealers are joining, and the Toledo Museum of Art recently admitted to serving as a guarantor at auction. ..." https://lnkd.in/eF9XVjHC